Al Weimer and student in the lab

The research areas in our department span from biological engineering to energy to functional materials.

A rendering of biomaterials researchAssociated Faculty: Anseth, Bowman, Bryant, Cha, Goodwin, Hind, Kaar, Randolph, Schwartz, Shirts, Stansbury

  • Materials that improve biocompatibility and functional performance.
  • Polymers for drug delivery, in vivo imaging, and tissue engineering.
  • Directing tissue growth for regenerating cartilage and cardiac muscle.
  • Novel dental restorative materials.
  • Engineering proteins for biomaterials and imaging applications.
  • Dynamics of biomolecules at biomaterial interfaces.

A biosensing diagramAssociated Faculty: Bowman, Cha, Chatterjee, Goodwin, Nagpal, Schwartz, Shields, Whitehead

  • Novel protein nanosensors for in vitro and in vivo detection
  • Smart colloids that sense and react to their surroundings.
  • Biomolecule detection using liquid crystals, polymerization, or photonics.

A biotechnology graphic renderingAssociated Faculty: Chatterjee, Fox, Goodwin, Hind, Kaar, Randolph, Schwartz, Shields, Shirts, Sprenger, Whitehead

  • Sustainable biorefining of fuels, commodity chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
  • Stabilization and formulation of therapeutic proteins and vaccines.
  • Improving bioreactor performance.
  • Novel antimicrobials.
  • Computational studies of biomolecules.

A catalysis renderingAssociated Faculty: Cha, Holewinski, Medlin, Musgrave, Schwartz, Smith, Weimer

  • Improved chemical reactions for renewable and sustainable energy.
  • Novel biomimetic heterogeneous catalysts.
  • New catalysis using atomic layer deposition (ALD).
  • Enzymatic catalysis in novel solvent environments.

A computational graphicAssociated Faculty: Chatterjee, Davis, Heinz, Hrenya, Medlin, Musgrave, Shirts, Smith, Sprenger

  • Mathematical modeling of cellular processes for biomedical applications.
  • Dynamics and interactions of particles or droplets.
  • Multiscale modeling of polymers, nanomaterials, and biomolecules.
  • Simulating materials for catalysis, microelectronics, data storage and biomaterials.
  • Quantum simulations to discover and design molecules for the conversion and storage of energy.

An energy graphicAssociated Faculty: Cha, Chatterjee, Davis, Fox, Goodwin, Gupta, Heinz, Holewinski, Hrenya, McGehee, Medlin, Musgrave, Nagpal, Schwartz, Smith, Weimer

  • Genome-engineering to improve cellulosic biofuels production.
  • Designing new catalysts for selective conversions in renewable and sustainable energy applications.
  • Utilizing enzymes in ionic liquids to convert biomass to biofuels.
  • Quantum simulations to design molecules for the conversion and storage of energy.
  • Thin film materials and membranes to obtain high-purity hydrogen for fuel cells.
  • Design of solar cells and solar-thermal chemical reactors/receivers to produce high purity hydrogen.

A fluids and flows graphicAssociated Faculty: Davis, Gupta, Hrenya, Shields, Weimer

  • Characterizing flow behavior of particulate matter including granular flows, gas-particle fluidization, and aerosol dynamics.
  • Microphysical studies of fundamental interactions.
  • Macrophysical studies of suspensions, sedimentation, filtration, aggregation, coalescence, flotation, and phase separation.

A image from an interfaces paperAssociated Faculty: Bowman, Cha, Goodwin, Gupta, Heinz, Kaar, Medlin, Musgrave, Nagpal, Randolph, Schwartz, Shields, Sprenger, White

  • Directing proteins and polymer surfaces at interfaces to develop novel functional biomaterials.
  • Improving reactions at solid surfaces for energy applications.
  • Smart colloids that sense and react to their surroundings.
  • Directed self-assembly of polymeric films into useful, device-oriented structures.
  • Effects of chemical stimuli and external forces on interfacial organization.

An image from a separations paperAssociated Faculty: Davis, Medlin, Schwartz, Shirts

  • Inorganic membranes such as zeolites for gas and liquid separations.
  • Molecular layer deposition (MLD) for membrane preparation.
  • Room-temperature ionic liquids-based materials and films.
  • Electric or light energy for increased selectivity in micro-scale devices.
  • Polymer membranes.

A rendering of nano-scale researchAssociated Faculty: Bowman, Cha, Goodwin, Heinz, Holewinski, Medlin, Musgrave, Nagpal, Schwartz, Shields, Smith, Weimer, White

  • Nanoparticle thin film device fabrication and modeling.
  • New room-temperature ionic liquids-based materials and polyelectrolyte architectures.
  • Synthesizing well-defined organic-inorganic systems from nanoscale building blocks.
  • Improved microfluidic devices using photopolymerizations.
  • Designing and fabricating nanostructured materials using top-down and bottom-up techniques.

An image from polymer researchAssociated Faculty: Anseth, Bowman, Bryant, Goodwin, Gupta, Heinz, Musgrave, Randolph, Shields, Stansbury, White

  • Novel monomers and photopolymerization mechanisms.
  • Dental restorative materials with minimal shrinkage.
  • Polymers for drug delivery, in vivo imaging, tissue engineering, labs-on-a-chip, adhesives, coatings, lithography, microelectronics, and LCDs.
  • Computer simulations to study material behavior.

A protein renderingAssociated Faculty: Chatterjee, Fox, Kaar, Randolph, Sprenger, Whitehead

  • Genome-engineering for biofuels, pharmaceutical, and gene therapy applications.
  • Rationalizing relationships between genome structure and function.
  • Synthesizing protein-containing structures.
  • Therapeutic protein stability, degradation, and contamination studies.
  • Modular synthetic genetic devices that can achieve higher-order biological computation.