About

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.

We currently have two funded postdoctoral positions open:

Research interests

  • DNA-stabilized metal nanoclusters with sequence encoded luminescence for bioimaging applications
  • Metal-mediated DNA base pairing – expanding the toolbox of DNA nanotechnology
  • Electronic materials from biomolecules
  • Block copolymer self-assembly for hierarchical nanomaterials
  • Machine learning and data mining for materials discovery
Copp Lab Fall 2023

Our group is affiliated with the following centers and organizations.

Center for Complex and Active Materials (CCAM), an NSF-funded MRSEC
UCI Center for Synthetic Biology

Our research has been supported by the following organizations.