Understanding and controlling how nanomaterials interact with living cells is key to advancing nanomedicine. Our work focuses on the design of chemically programmed, self-assembling supramolecular systems—ranging from hydrogels and nanoparticles to silicon-based microdevices—that can interface with cells to probe, track, and influence their behaviour. These versatile platforms open...
Quasicrystals are one of the most intriguing phases in classical matter. Defying the normal constraint of periodicity that applies to normal crystal structures, they can exhibit rotational symmetries that are forbidden for periodic crystals, e.g. 10-, 12-, 18-, 20-fold symmetries. These symmetries can be easily recognized in their diffraction patterns -- and it is this characteristic that led...
Among living organisms, plants offer a rich repertoire of biological strategies for interacting with complex and heterogeneous environments, shaped by millions of years of evolution across both terrestrial and aquatic habitats.
In this talk, we explore how key functional principles from plant biology can be translated into plant-inspired and biohybrid microfabricated systems, and how the...
Many bacteria inhabit hydrated environments like soil, textiles and agar hydrogels in the lab. In these environments, cells are surrounded by a water meniscus. First, I will show that the resulting capillary forces organize bacterial colonies, enabling cells to aggregate into densely packed nematic layers while still allowing them to slide past one another. Second, I will show that, when these...
