HARNESSING THE LIGHT AT THE NANOSCALE

Group founded in October 2022

Welcome to the Bio-Engineered Nanophotonics group! We create photoactive biohybrids—synthetic systems that incorporate essential elements of natural photosystems— to pave the way for advancements in bio-inspired nanotechnology and photonics. Our research investigates how protein amino acids influence chromophore relaxation dynamics, elucidating the design rules and functional mechanisms of engineered biohybrids. 

Our Mission. We address challenges in photoactive biohybrid development by creating new design strategies to control protein-chromophore interaction networks in engineered biohybrids. 

Our Research Approach. We engineer recombinant proteins with tailored pockets to embed chromophores in an environment that can be tuned at the nanoscale. Our designed protein scaffolds enable precise control over the nature and strength of protein-chromophore interactions. By applying time-resolved spectroscopy, we monitor chromophore excited-state decay dynamics and investigate the role of specific amino acids in the biohybrid photoresponse.

Our Vision. Our ultimate goal is to define the fundamental principles of biohybrid design and be able to control their relaxation dynamics to transform biohybrids into powerful technological tools.