Events
Events Calendar
Professor Tijana Grove
Virginia Tech
Tuesday October 3, 2017
Wright-Reiman Labs Room 260
"Protein Materials— From Nature to Nanotechnology"
Proteins and protein assemblies are the biological workhorses that carry out vital functions in all living organisms. The Grove lab is interested in translating fundamental knowledge and principles of how proteins operate in nature to the growing field of nanotechnology for the design of multifunctional, dynamic materials.
Herein, I will present our most recent work on the repeat-protein biomaterials that self-assemble through the combination of head-to-tail stacking and weak dipole-dipole interactions. These ion and proton conducting materials exhibit anisotropic properties at biologically relevant length-scales, nano to micro, and relevant time scales, miliseconds to seconds. I will further highlight the tunable anisotropic nano and meso-scale morphologies, which direct the material' bending, twisting, or curling in response to changes in relative humidity and electric potential.
~Coffee/tea will be served prior to lecture.~