Responsive Polymeric Materials

Creating smart soft materials that translate molecular-level function to larger scales

Biomolecular machinery communicates with physical and chemical signals to perform essential tasks in our cells. For example, proteins form complexes to self-assemble into macromolecules for cargo transport and cytoskeletal networks assemble and disassemble to drive cellular motion. As engineers, we strive to mimic such functionality in a synergistic effort to both improve our understanding of nature and build our own tools using synthetic biomaterials. DNA nanotechnology enables bottom-up construction of nanomaterials with precise control over geometric and mechanical properties. DNA nanomachines exhibit unprecedented motion control and reactive single molecule binding. Incorporating DNA nanostructures into polymer assemblies can translate the attractive mechanical properties of DNA into realistic robust materials.

Here, we aim to develop DNA-based microscale filaments, which will be integrated into polymer networks to achieve smart soft materials with programmable dynamic behavior. In addition to controllable material properties, these smart materials will exhibit molecular-level detection and macro-scale actuation response towards the dream of artificial cellular machinery.