Building nanomaterials molecule by molecule

The Copp lab uses biomolecules and polymers as programmable building blocks for nanoscale materials. Our research focuses on using nucleic acids, peptides, and synthetic polymers to architect nanomaterials that control light and charge at the nanoscale. We focus mostly on photonic nanomaterials, with new research directions in bioelectronics.  A major theme of our work is to develop and exploit machine learning and data mining tools for nanomaterials study and design.

Research interests

• NIR-emitting DNA-stabilized metal nanoclusters for deep tissue bioimaging
• Atomically precise materials
• Energy transfer mechanisms in nanocluster architectures
• Metal-mediated DNA base pairing for DNA nanotechnologies
• Block copolymer self-assembly for hierarchical nanomaterials
• Machine learning and data mining for materials discovery

Copp Lab Fall 2024