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Welcome

Advances in materials science and biology have become increasingly intertwined, with progress in one field influencing the other. The central theme of the Brandeis Materials Research Laboratory is the development of this relationship between biology and materials science using two complementary approaches.

In a “bottom-up” approach, we build on our expertise in the understanding of relatively simple material and chemical systems (liquid crystals, colloids, polymers, oscillating chemical reactions). We are exploring how the addition of constraints typically found in biology – confinement, crowding and local forces that compete with and sometimes frustrate long range order – leads to emergent properties, in the realms of structure and dynamics.

In a complementary “top-down” approach, we are studying functional cellular components, which are complex combinations of materials with specific constraints. We make qualitative and quantitative analyses of their structure and properties, and then deconstruct these “devices” by modifying or removing constraints, to understand just how the combination of materials and constraints leads to biological function.

A National Science Foundation sponsored Material Research Science and Engineering Center.