YAN LAB

The theme of our research is to use nature's design rules as inspiration to advance biomedical, energy-related, and other technological innovations through the use of self-assembling molecules and materials. We aim to create intelligent materials with better component controls at the molecular level. Our interdisciplinary team is interested in designing bio-inspired molecular building blocks and programming their higher order assembly into systems that will perform complex functions. Our ultimate goals are 1) to engineer an information guided self-assembling molecular system for the finest possible interactions of molecules in a three-dimensional space; and 2) to create man-made molecular machines/molecular robotics through molecular design, molecular programming, directed molecular evolution and molecular systems engineering.