Welcome to PAMS! (Science without borders)

Jacqueline Krim, Professor of Physics and Associate Dean for Research

College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences

Departments

• Chemistry• Physics• Marine, Earth &

Atmospheric Sciences• Mathematics• Statistics

Colleges• Agriculture and Life Sciences• Design• Education• Engineering• Humanities and Social Sciences• Management• Natural Resources• Physical and Mathematical Sciences• Textiles• Veterinary Medicine

PAMS by the Numbers …

• 1,700 Students• 900 Undergrad• 800 Graduate• 200 Tenure/Tenure-Track Faculty• 9 Research and Service Centers• Annual Expenditures: $83M• Endowment: $18M• Research Expenditures: $38M• 500 Active Research Projects

PAMS Economic Impact - FY 2004-09

• 131 Invention Disclosures

• 96 Patent Applications

• 51 Patents

• Multiple start-up companies

NC State Research Focus Areas

• Health and Well-Being

• Energy and Environment

• Educational Innovation

• Safety and Security

• Ovarian cancer biomarkers• Brain cancer chemotherapy• Organ transplants• Personalized medicine• Cartilage regeneration• Parkinson’s disease• And much more …

Health and Well-Being

www.physics.ncsu.edu

DNA repair proteins - locate DNA mismatches

Neurotransmitter release proteins

Weninger group (Physics): Conformational dynamics of individual biological molecules through optical measurements

www.physics.ncsu.edu

Riehn group (physics): Biological molecules confined in nano scale containers

• Energy production

• Distribution and storage

• Consumption& Sustainability

• Environmental • Flexible Organic

photo voltaics

Research Excellence – Energy/Environment

www.physics.ncsu.edu

Advanced Light Source

Soft X-ray Beam Induced Current Microscopy

• Organic photovoltaic devices (PFB and F8BT based)• Quantitative, simultaneous composition and efficiency

maps– No imaging artifacts such as coupling to topography

• Potential of 10 nm spatial resolution in near future (now 50 nm)

Ade group: Scanning transmission X-ray microscopy

280 285 290 295 300 305 310 315 3200.0

2.0x104

4.0x104

6.0x104

8.0x104

1.0x105

1.2x105

F8BT PFB

Mas

s A

bsor

ptio

n C

o-ef

ficie

nt (c

m2/g

)

Energy (eV)

283 284 285 286 287NEXAFS spectra

www.physics.ncsu.edu

Upper: Artist’s rendition of the atomic vibrations that give rise to phononic friction, recently confirmed by our experiments.

Lower: schematic of the quartz crystal oscillator technique employed by our research group.

Nanotribology

Our research program is unique world-wide, exploring the nano-scale origins of friction with aquartz crystal microbalancetechnique that the PI developedin the late 1980’s with the support of NSF.

This year we published the first systematic study of how molecular rotation impacts sliding friction . [1] Our results were featured in both Nature Nano-technology and Nanozone news.[1]T. Coffey and J. Krim, “C60 molecular bearings and the phenomenon of nanomapping”,Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 186104 (2006)

Krim group: Quartz crystal microbalance studies of atomic-scale friction

US Department of Energy Center of Excellence

UNC – Chapel HillA.E. ChampagneT.B. CleggR. HenningC. IliadisH.J. KarwowskiJ.F. Wilkerson

NC State UniversityD.G. Haase P.R. Huffman R. Golub C.R. Gould J.H. Kelley (Research)G.E. Mitchell (Research)A.R. Young

Duke UniversityH. Gao C.R. HowellW. Tornow (Emeritus)H.R. Weller (Emeritus)Y.K. WuM. W. Ahmed (NCCU/TUNL)

Faculty

Researchers 44 graduate students (13+14+17) 10 postdocs (4+2+ 4) 9 research scientists (5 nuclear physicists + 4 accelerator physicists)

TUNL: Accelerator Facilities

High Intensity Gamma Source (HIS)1.2 GeV Storage Ring FEL

E = 2 – 100 MeV

Tandem Laboratory: light ion and neutron beams

Laboratory for Experimental Nuclear Astrophysics(LENA)

Fundamental Neutron Physics at NC State

Neutron Source Development

FNPB SNS Beamline

PULSTAR UCN Source

LANL UCN

Source

Weak Interaction Studies

Neutron Lifetime

UCNA

Non-Standard Model SearchesNeutron EDM n-nbar

time variation of alpha

ann

Hadronic PV and PC interactions

n-alpha spin rotation

n-3He capture asymmetry

Building Science, Scientists and Citizens

March 2012

College of Physical andMathematical Sciences

Nanomaterials:Hybrid NanostructuresMagnetic Nanoparticles

and Arrays

Biophysics of Lipid Bilayers and

Membrane Proteins;Biosensors

High Field EPR Instrumentation

Development

SMIRNOV LABS @ NCSU

Organic Synthesisof Molecular Probes

and UnnaturalAmino Acids

Shared High Field EPR Laboratory @ NCSU:CW EPR at 9‐10 GHz: Varian Century Series E9 & Bruker/IBM Spectrometers

High Field EPR:

Cryogenic Ltd. 12 T wide‐bore cryogen‐free magnet Cryogenic Ltd. 9 T wide‐bore cryogen‐free magnet W‐band (95 GHz) homebuilt high‐sensitivity bridge D‐band (130 GHz) 2‐channel pulse/1‐channel CW bridge 3‐300 K flow cryostats for X‐ and HF EPR Leiden Cryogenics cryogen‐free dilution refrigerator to operate with 

9 T magnet down to 20 mK

State‐of‐the‐art CW & Pulsed EPR Systems: Bruker Biospin Elexyx E500 CW‐spectrometer Bruker Biospin Elexys E580 CW/pulsed spectrometer with ELDOR 

and high power Q‐band capability

SMIRNOV LABS @ NCSU

Biophysical Models of Lipid BilayersLiposomes

SUBSTRATE

<1-2

nm

wat

er la

yer

SUBSTRATE

<1-2

nm

wat

er la

yer

Substrate‐supported bilayers

Bicelles

Sligar lab, UIUC

Nanodiscs

An artistic illustration of a complex endomembrane system (A) is compared with a simple flat geometry of a conventional substrate‐supported bilayer(B). Note that (A) is an uncopyrighted image released to the public domain by its author, LadyofHats.

Spontaneous lipid bilayer bending is  associated with essential cellular functions 

SUBSTRATE (PORE WALL)

SUBSTRATE (PORE WALL)

H 2O

H 2OH 2O

H 2O H 2O

H 2O

H 2O

SUBSTRATE (PORE WALL)

SUBSTRATE (PORE WALL)

H 2O

H 2OH 2O

H 2O H 2O

H 2O

H 2O

Smirnov, US Patent 7,521,225 (2009); Brey, Chekmenev, Cross, Smirnov, US Patent 7,674,595 (2010); Cross, Brey, Smirnov, Chekmenev, US Patent 7,678,546 (2010) .

New type of substrate‐supported bilayers with a large surface area (gain of ca. 1000‐fold vs. planar bilayers) and tunable curvature (from ca. 12 to 125 nm radius): effects of lipid bilayer curvature on lipid self‐

assembly, bilayer cooperative properties, and membrane protein structure and function.

A flow‐through bio‐

functionalized membrane: 

separation and purification of 

drugs, membrane and 

membrane associated proteins

Development of robust membrane protein biochips that are based on functional membrane proteins; both leaflets of the bilayer could be accessible to solvents

Aligning membrane proteins and peptides with lipid nanotubearrays for biophysical studies including binding of peripheral proteins and structure‐function studies of integral membrane 

proteins by NMR and EPR

500 nm

Challenges of Practical Nanotechnology:Making it Work on the Bulk Scale 

EASY

318.5 μm

Difficult (but we made it!):

EXAMPLES  OF  AAO (ANODIC ALUMINUM OXIDE) MEMBRANES MADE BY SMIRNOV LAB (NCSU) 

3.8 mm

8.0 mm

DHODH enzyme is very promising target for drug development against parasites involved in tropical  diseases

Research objective 1: Understand molecular mechanisms of catalysis and inhibition of two enzymes - chlorocatechol 1,2-dioxygenase from P. putida (Pp 1,2-CCD; responsible for biodegradation of aromatic compounds) and E. coli dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH; inhibition of this enzyme is related to a number of diseases). Collaborative approach is build on extensive expertise of Prof. Costa -Filho (USP) in cloning, expression, purification and structure-function studies of these catalytic enzymes and extend the arsenal of methods available for the Brazilian team by utilizing state-of-the-art instrumentation facilities and experience in advance EPR methods of NC State research team.Research objective 2: Develop chemical approaches to functionalize the nanopores with enzymes for future applications of these hybrid structures for new sustainable environmentally friendly chemical processes and for drug screening. Collaborative approach brings in novel nano-technology invented and developed by Prof. Smirnov (NC State) to exploit catalytic activity of enzymes for chemical processing and drug screening using hybrid nano-devices.

CCD enzyme can be utilized for biodegradation of stable aromatic compounds widely produced by chemical industry.

USP-NCSU Collaborative

Bio-nanotechnology projectFrom understanding the mechanisms of enzymes action to building hybrid nanostructures for chemical bioprocessing and drug screening

Building Science, Scientists and Science without Borders

College of Physical andMathematical Sciences