Silklab (Omenetto)

Structural proteins are Nature’s building blocks, conferring stiffness, structure, and function to ordinarily soft biological materials. Such proteins are polymorphic which allows controlling the end material format through their self-assembly.  These biomaterials provide a unique opportunity by being simultaneously “technological” (e.g. mechanically robust, micro- and nanostructured, high-performing) and “biological” (e.g. living, adaptable, bio-functional) making them ideally suited for applications at the interface between these two domains.

Our goal is to provide innovation for new advanced material processing and manufacturing based on sustainable carbon-neutral technologies, and imagine a new class of applications for living materials that operate seamlessly at the interface between the biological and the technological worlds.

We study the use of silk as an optical material for applications in biomedical engineering, photonics, and nanophotonics. Silk can be nanopatterned with features smaller than 20 nm. This allows the manufacturing of structures such as (among others) holographic gratings, phase masks, beam diffusers, and photonic crystals out of a pure protein film. The properties of silk allow these devices to be “biologically activated” offering new opportunities for sensing and bio-photopic components.

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Resources

Silklab is an interdisciplinary materials science laboratory that occupies nearly 10,000 sqft of lab/office space including biomaterial processing/characterization, electronic, photonic and additive manufacturing facilities. Silklab is equipped with a series of dedicated facilities that cover the full cycle of biomaterials/soft condensed matter materials usage: from their isolation to processing and characterization, to their integration in optical, electronic and biomedical devices.

For optical analysis, Silklab offers brightfield and fluorescence optical microscopes, multispectral cameras, a refractive index/thickness prism coupler setup, an ultra-fast multi-wavelength pulsed laser source, and an infrared fiber laser with a wide set of detectors.

Relevant publications