Design, Synthesis, and Imaging of Biological and Biohybrid Molecular Assemblies
This capability supports users designing, synthesizing, and characterizing biological molecules to facilitate materials discovery using strategies from biology. Examples include protein-based lattices, peptide-DNA assemblies, and engineered microbial organelles for production of composite materials. We assist users in wet-lab synthesis combined with biophysical characterization using calorimetery, spectroscopy, fluorescence and high throughput, label-free platforms for binding. To resolve the dynamics and heterogeneity within these materials, we apply sub-diffraction or single-molecule fluorescence imaging. And through joint user proposals with other Molecular Foundry facilities, we offer correlative imaging that combines fluorescence with atomic and electron microscopy. This capability is ideal for collaborations or projects at any stage of the design-build-test cycle: from initial design through synthesis, assembly, and multimodal imaging of the resulting materials. Reach out to Behzad for more information.
