Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

There is a dramatically increasing world demand for green, sustainable biomaterials to enhance the*performance of functional foods, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products.*PhytoSpherix(TM) is one such material, an all-natural, high-tech additive which can add value to many*products in each of these markets. PhytoSpherix is comprised of nanoparticles made from joining many*glucose (sugar) molecules together in a branching fashion. They are essentially tiny balls of starch that serve as*a form of energy storage in plants. They are thus not only biodegradable but biocompatible - they are ingested*when one eats sweet corn! PhystoSpherix particles have many useful properties such as the ability to absorb*and retain a great deal of water and to modify the viscosity of a liquid when used as an additive. However, as*they are very small and soft, it is difficult to resolve the structural details of the nanoparticles experimentally. In*this grant we will use computer simulations to grow, simulate, and characterize the particle structure. Although*the particles are small (on the order of 50 nm), they are still comprised of many atoms making detailed*simulations very difficult. We will thus employ coarse-grained approaches at two different levels to model the*nanoparticles: a very coarse-grained approach in which each glucose molecule is modeled as one bead and an*atomistic-based coarse-grained approach that retains some of the chemical features of glucose. In addition to*characterizing the structure, we will also use modeling at both levels to explore the dynamics of small*molecules within the particles. Combining results across these different levels will give both fundamental*insight into the nature of carbohydrate-bases dendritic materials which will be of great value in the fields of*polymer science and bio-nanomaterials. This work is performed in collaboration with Mirexus Biotechnologies*and the knowledge that is generated will provide essential information for the development of new applications*of PhytoSpherix particles such as drug and supplement delivery. This will fuel the growth of Mirexus as a*Canadian research intensive company that hires highly qualified scientific and engineering personnel.