LCMRC researchers have discovered that solutions in water of pieces of DNA only a few nanometers long (nanoDNA) can form liquid crystal phases if the DNA is complementary, that is if it can form double-helixed pairs. These duplex pairs then stack up end-to-end to form rod-shaped aggregates that make the liquid crystal phases. In a mixture with some DNA that is not complementary the duplex forming DNA phase separates, condensing into liquid crystal droplets.
After spending two summers participating in the Research Experience for Teachers Program at MIT's MRSEC, Ms. Julie O'Loughlin, a science teacher at Breed Middle School in Lynn, MA, brings her eighth-grade classes to CMSE to share the exciting research being done at the Center. The workshop is one example of the unique synergistic interaction between the research, facilities and education components of the MIT MRSEC.
Based on the similarity of the sequences of combinatorially selected peptide that have similar binding characteristics, we developed a bioinformatics approach that provides a general and simple methodology to quantitatively categorize a large number of inorganic binding peptides. Furthermore, the approach also provides a way to knowledge-based design a new set of binding sequences specific to inorganic surfaces with predictable functionalities.
Chemical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, and Microbiology, University of Washington We show that a protein with no intrinsic inorganic synthesis activity can be endowed with the ability to control the formation of inorganic nanostructures under thermodynamically unfavorable (nonequilibrium) conditions, reproducing a key feature of biological hard-tissue growth and assembly. The nonequilibrium synthesis of Cu2O nanoparticles is accomplished using an engineered derivative of the DNA-binding protein TraI in a room temperature precursor electrolyte.
The Oklahoma-Arkansas MRSEC hosted the14th SIMC conference which engaged international participation from a diverse group of more than 30 nations. The technical sessions presented over 5 days with parallel sessions encompassed the transfer of many new and developing ideas, and the talks received the highest evaluation as indicated by the results of the conference survey. Download
The explosion of interest in graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, has called
attention to the advantages of materials with small effective masses. In our InSb quantum
wells, the electron effective mass is as small as in graphene while the room-temperature
The IRG on ferroelectric nanophotonic materials and devices seeks to develop tunable photonic devices by combining the nonlinear dispersion of photonic metamaterials with the unusual optical properties of ferroelectric perovskites. A series of experimental tests and theoretical calculations have demonstrated the potential of this approach. The bottom figure shows how the refractive index of a ferroelectric thin film can be changed with applied electric field. The top right shows how light can be confined to a ferroelectric wave-guide the results of a theoretical calculation.
When proteins are made inside cells, genetic information (in the form of messenger RNA) must be "translated" into specific sequences of amino acid building blocks. Accurate translation is essential to the health of the cell, and the idea that "one gene gives one protein" emerged very early in the development of the field of molecular biology. Researchers in the Center for the Science and Engineering of Materials (CSEM) at the California Institute of Technology are changing that idea.