报告题目 (Title)： Biosensing with Arrayed Deep Cavitand Hosts

报告人 (Speaker)： 钟文婉 中国科学技术大学

报告时间 (Time)：2024年9月19日 14:00-15:00

报告地点 (Place)：校本部 HA102

邀请人(Inviter)： 于洋

主办部门：理学院化学系

报告摘要：

Using multiple macrocyclic hosts and dyes in an arrayed format allows pattern recognition-based “chemical nose” sensing. However, it is challenging for such “chemical nose” to target specific molecules, because the host-dye and host-target interactions exploited in indicator displacement assays, the major format of “chemical nose” sensing, often are not selective. Collaborating with Prof. Richard Hooley, we address this issue using the water-soluble, self-folding deep cavitands as hosts. Cavitands are flexible bowl-shaped receptors that can be easily functionalized with different motifs at the upper and lower rim. Their large cavities can bind many different fluorescent dyes, causing either fluorescence enhancement or quenching. Taking advantages of the variations of fluorescent signals when the guest is bound or unbound to cavitands, we have designed various cavitand-based arrays to detect post-translational modifications in peptides, including lysine methylation, serine phosphorylation, and isomerization, through indicator displacement and indirect sensing. The strategy of indirect sensing also realized successful differentiation of oligonucleotide secondary structures, including G-quadruplexes, hairpins, triplexes, and i-motifs, as well as structures containing modified G bases, with the aid of machine learning. Overall, the unique recognition profile of self-folded deep cavitands provides a powerful, yet simple sensing platform, one that can be easily tuned for a wide scope of biorelevant targets, in complex biological media, without sacrificing selectivity in the recognition.

报告人简介：

钟文婉，中国科学技术大学化学系教授，国家创新人才计划长期项目入选者。中国科学技术大学本科毕业，美国爱荷华州立大学（Iowa State University）博士，洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室博士后研究员。于2006年加入美国加州大学河滨分校（University of California, Riverside）化学系，先后任助理教授、副教授和教授，并于2018-2023年担任环境毒理学科项目主任。2024年1月加入中国科学技术大学，为化学与材料科学学院和精准智能化学重点实验室双聘教授，并担任精准智能化学重点实验室副主任。研究方向包括：1）发展体外检测技术以实现对靶标分子的高通量快速分辨； 2) 创新分离技术以辅助通过分子组学研究来发现新的疾病预测与监控的途径；3）研究纳米-生物界面，深入了解纳米材料毒性的调控机理；4）研究分子间相互作用，指导设计主客体传感阵列，并运用机器学习的手段，准确辨别生物大分子细微的结构变化，从而加深对其结构与功能间相互关系的理解。研究工作在Nature Chemistry, Journal of American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Nucleic Acids Research, Chemical Sciences, Environmental Science & Technology, Analytical Chemistry等国际权威期刊上发表。钟文婉教授曾获美国国家自然科学基金的Career Award，及加州大学河滨分校的Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research。持续担任美国国家自然科学基金，美国国家卫生研究院，及香港研究资助局的基金评审员，并为多个重要学术期刊审稿。参与组织并主持了多个国际会议生化分析分会。