Research

The Wright Lab's vision is to push to new frontiers in human health, agriculture, and industry through interdisciplinary research at the interface of chemistry, biology, materials science, and engineering. Our lab uses molecular biology, various polymerization techniques, and chemical synthesis to develop promising candidates for clinical and commerical applications. Our approach allows students to learn a broad scope of skills including: protein expression and purification, polymer processing, cell and tissue culturing, and small molecule synthesis. 

Polymer-based biomaterials synthesized through protein-polymer bioconjugation, enzyme immobilization onto polymer surfaces, and enzyme encapsulation into polymersomes presents considerable opportunities for novel biological function. The advantages of these polymer-based biomaterials is tailored protein activity and stability against environmental and biological stressors. when compared to its unmodified state. This project seeks to determine molecular principles underlying protein behavior by polymer conjugation, immobilization, and encapsulation to develop rationally designed polymer-based biomaterials. 

Hydrogels are promising agents in agriculture as soil conditioners and nutrient reservoirs as they can increase water-holding capacity of the soil. We intend to exploit this to engineering living materials systems that are responsive to diverse stimuli and capable to generating complex outputs. This project seeks to achieve control of material properties and function for agricultural application.