(2hm) Non-Invasive Sensing and Actuation inside Biological Systems with Functional Soft Materials

I am primarily interested in developing innovative intelligent soft materials that enable wireless sensing and actuation at human-material interfaces. My research specifically focuses on miniaturized soft robotics and non-invasive drug delivery. To achieve this objective, I plan to explore interdisciplinary advancements in materials chemistry, biophysics, bioengineering, and synthetic biology. By leveraging these disciplines, I aim to design soft materials with intelligent control and energy transduction capabilities that are applicable in therapeutic contexts. Examples include programmable mechanical deformations for cell-mimicking soft robotics and mechanochemical processes for precise drug delivery. The outcomes of my research will not only offer valuable insights into the relationship between structure and properties in soft matter but also hold significant potential for applications in the biotic-abiotic interface, particularly in the field of therapeutics.

Non-invasively manipulating functional biomaterials within the body remains a significant challenge. While it is relatively straightforward to deliver non-invasive physical stimuli, such as force, heat, or long-wavelength light, inside the body, achieving the desired biomaterial functions, such as controlled locomotion and drug delivery, is far more complex. To bridge this complexity gap between stimuli and desired functions, smart soft materials have emerged as promising candidates. These materials can convert tissue-penetrating energy into sophisticated functions and can be utilized to build sensors and actuators capable of non-invasively interfacing with biology. For instance, thermally or optically driven soft robotics can mimic cellular movement to deliver drugs, and mechanochemical processes can trigger chemical reactions under the influence of force to control cellular behaviors. However, the development of synthetic smart soft materials for biomaterial applications still has the following challenges.

1. Relatively low energy transduction efficiency;
2. Non-biocompatible chemistry;
3. Difficulty of wireless monitoring and actuation deep inside body;

To address these challenges, we will synthesize and fabricate soft materials with efficient energy transduction capabilities. Starting materials will include conventional synthetic polymers, and genetically encodable soft materials such as proteins and their assembled nanostructures, e.g., gas vesicles. We will study the fundamental molecular structure-function relationship of these materials and engineer them for efficient energy transduction, including but not limited to chemo-mechanical and mechanochemical processes. Our efforts will employ polymer chemistry and microfabrication, as well as advanced material characterization methods to address fundamental challenges in developing multifunctional soft materials with biocompatibility. These molecular engineering capabilities will be further combined with physical tools, e.g., ultrasound, to realize non-invasive actuation of these soft materials deep inside body for biomedical applications, including localized, prolonged drug delivery inside brain, wireless chemical control of cell behaviors and shape morphing materials for therapeutic cell-sized microrobots.

Teaching interests

Based on my academic and research background, I am particularly interested in teaching Chemical Engineering core courses, including Thermodynamics and Kinetics. I am also interested in teaching courses related to Polymer Science and Bioengineering/Biomaterials. In addition, I am interested in developing the new courses that draw on my background in Engineering and Material Chemistry. One proposed course is the following:

Bioinspired and Bio-integrated Functional Materials: Students taking this course will learn a variety of biomimetic and bio-integrated methods to design functional materials. The course will cover biological and biomimetic designs of materials with exceptional properties in mechanics (e.g. shell-inspired material composite), optics (e.g., microlenses in sea urchin and starfish; optical crystals on butterfly wings), locomotion (e.g., cilia and jellyfish), and wettability (e.g., hierarchical micro/nanostructures on lotus leaves), etc. The fabrication methods to realize these biomimetic designs will also be covered (e.g., micro/nanofabrication). New class of bio-integrated engineered living materials will also be introduced, focusing on how the biological intelligence (e.g., genetic circuits in cells) can be engineered and integrated for sensing and actuation capabilities.