Project Overview
MRSEC: Genetically Engineered Materials Science and Engineering Center
# 0520567
Mehmet Sarikaya (Principal Investigator)
Francois Baneyx (Co-Principal Investigator)
The University of Washington MRSEC supports innovative research and education that integrates modern molecular biology with state of the art chemical synthesis to construct hybrid materials exhibiting properties that cannot be achieved through either traditional biological or chemical routes. By engineering modular biomolecular components with tailored recognition, structural, and informational properties and interfacing them with specific molecular and inorganic nanoscale components the MRSEC will impart materials with photonic / electronic / catalytic / chemical functionality that can be reorganized, addressed, and reconfigured on demand in response to external stimuli. The center will develop coordinated activities in graduate and undergraduate education and outreach, establish an international network of laboratories sharing a common interest in molecular biomimetics, and partner with industry and national laboratories to translate fundamental discoveries into new products realities. The MRSEC will conduct a unique outreach program to Native Americans in the Seattle area.
The MRSEC, consisting of one Interdisciplinary Research Group - Polypeptides as genetically engineered building blocks for functional hybrid materials - will create protein-based molecular building blocks with tailored functionalities and use them for the synthesis and assembly of nanostructured hybrid materials exhibiting novel or improved properties.
Participants in the Center currently include ten senior investigators, four postdoctoral associates, and five graduate students from seven departments and two partner universities - New York University and the Istanbul Technical University. Professor Mehmet Sarikaya directs the MRSEC.
Source: NSF