Plant Nanotechnology – Plants possess remarkable abilities such as self-repair, autonomous growth, and photosynthesis, which allow them to thrive in dynamic environments. Their capacity to monitor and respond to environmental changes through complex signaling mechanisms—such as nutrient and water uptake through roots and gas exchange via stomata—makes them fascinating candidates for interfacing with nanotechnology. Plant nanotechnology, particularly the emerging field of plant nanobionics, seeks to leverage these natural capabilities by integrating nanoparticles and sensors to enhance plant functions and gain deeper insights into their physiological processes.
Our research spans several exciting areas, including the development of nanoparticles for efficient transport and localization within plant tissues, methods for delivering genetic material to modify plant traits, and innovative projects such as creating light-emitting plants. We can introduce optical nanosensors to phytohormones and environmental analytes to a wide range of plants to monitor crop health and the surrounding environment in real time. We have developed luciferase conjugated and luciferin self-releasing nanoparticles to be infused into plant leaves to convert innate plant ATP to chemiluminescence for indirect lighting. Spatiotemporal information collected from plants can be sent directly to the internet. The integration of plants with the internet would enable an unprecedented degree of data collected from plants about the environment and crop health status, providing important information that can be used to help solve longstanding challenges such as environmental remediation and food and energy security. These efforts are pushing the boundaries of plant nanotechnology, offering new possibilities for agricultural innovation, environmental monitoring, and sustainable biotechnology. [Read More]
Medical Nanotechnology – The research projects focus on developing advanced biomedical technologies through nanosensor platforms, computational modeling, and chemical imaging. Nanosensor Chemical Cytometry (NCC) enables rapid, non-destructive measurement of biochemical signals from living cells at the single-cell level, capturing cellular heterogeneity for applications like optimizing cellular therapeutics production. The “GRI Mathematical Model Mapping Performances in Animal and Clinical Trials” (IMPACT) uses computational models to simulate the glucoregulatory system in humans and animals, enhancing drug design and personalized medicine for diabetes management.
The chemical imaging project aims to detect cancer biomarkers with functionalized nanoparticles, providing 3D chemical imaging for diagnosis and surgical planning, in collaboration with the Koch Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Additionally, biomedical modeling and computation integrates advanced mathematical modeling to simulate physiological processes, supporting drug development and disease management for diabetes and cancer using tools like MATLAB and COMSOL. These projects collectively advance diagnostic, therapeutic, and monitoring technologies in healthcare. [Read More]
2D Polyaramids – “Just a dream of synthetic chemists”: Using a novel polymerization process, we have created a new 2D polymer that is stronger than steel, is as light as plastic, and is easily manufactured in large quantities. Unlike traditional polymers, which form 1D spaghetti-like chains or 3D tangled webs, our 2D polymer self-assembles into net-like sheets. This was long thought to be “just a dream of synthetic chemists,” as a single bond rotation out of plane will grow the material in three dimensions and destroy its 2D nature. Our chemistry employs rigid bonds and strong hydrogen bonding between sheets, enabling both 2D growth and extremely stable and strong macrostructures. Our free-standing films exhibit high elastic moduli and yield strength, and the nature of how the 2D sheets interlock leads to great promise as an impermeable barrier material.
Our work sits at the intersection of 2D nanotechnology, which includes the study of graphene, hBN, and MoS2, and polymer science, and promises to combine the exciting electrical, mechanical, and gas barrier properties of 2D nanomaterials with the synthetic processability and manufacturability of traditional polymers. [Read More]
Thermodynamics and Transport of Nano-confined Fluids – The Strano Group has a strong history of pioneering research on the behavior of 1D and 2D solid-state nanopores and nano-confined systems.Recent work has focused on nano-confined fluids as a means of understanding nano-scale thermodynamics and transport. We push experimental and theoretical frontiers to study these phenomena both in carbon nanotubes and nano-pore membranes, developing new experimental platforms for efficient, high-throughput characterization [1] and theoretical models to explain fundamental phenomena [2, 3]. We conduct this work as a part of the Center for Enhanced Nanofluidic Transport (CENT), an DOE-ERFC that promotes strong collaboration between researchers across the country in top universities and national labs, working at the cutting-edge of fluid flow and molecular transport. [Read More]
Colloidal Electronics and Robotics – Extending nanoelectronics into traditionally inaccessible locations using microparticle devices represent an emerging field at the crossing point of materials science and electrical engineering. The ability to interface electronic platforms with the environment addresses several key challenges that we face today (such as remote autonomous sensing and integration of local objects into a global digital network), as well as opening up possibilities for the next generation smart micro-biomedical devices. Colloidal robots are particles capable of functions such as sensing, computation, communication, locomotion and energy management that are all controlled by the particle itself. Their design and synthesis is an emerging area of interdisciplinary research drawing from materials science, colloid science, self-assembly, robophysics and control theory. Many colloidal robot systems approach synthetic versions of biological cells in autonomy and may find ultimate utility in bringing these specialized functions to previously inaccessible locations. Our group has been developing the certain design principles and strategies towards the realization of colloidal robots by theory and experiment. [Read More]
Sustainable Chemistry and Materials – The United States alone generates 35.4 million tons of plastic, mostly petroleum-derived, with 26.8 million tons ending up in landfills. Along with this material waste, the energy consumed to produce these plastics—accounting for up to 4% of total industrial energy use in the United States—is ultimately wasted. We envision plastics and construction materials that continuously absorb atmospheric carbon sources, particularly greenhouse gases like CO2 and CH4, and scavenge energy from the environment as needed to renew and self-regenerate. Conceptually, the system mimics the natural growth mechanisms of plants, which use ambient carbon and sunlight to sustainably generate valuable chemicals and materials. It should be noted that traditional materials tend to fail due to the propagation of microcracks and other relatively small defects that accumulate over time. Therefore, the amount of additional mass required to prevent such failure and avoid landfills altogether is minimal, providing a significant opportunity. The growth rates of what we have termed Carbon Fixing Materials (CFMs) need only match those of living plants to drastically increase operational lifetimes. Our work has focused on developing novel catalytic systems derived from biological molecules, inorganic nanomaterials, and hybrids of the two to drive thermodynamically and kinetically challenging reactions. We study their reaction mechanisms and kinetics through a suite of analytical chemistry tools and computational modeling to enable this revolutionary new class of materials. [Read More]