Welcome and thank you for your interest in our research. We design and study molecules to understand coupling between molecular forces and chemical reactivity. When a molecule is distorted it develops restoring force and its reactivity often changes. Such distortion-induced changes in chemical reactivity underlie phenomena central to many areas of natural sciences, from operation of motor proteins that enable biological motility and neurotransmission, to behavior of polymers under mechanical stresses and at surfaces.
Our objective is to develop quantitative predictive understanding of such phenomena. Such understanding could guide the design of new materials capable of autonomous damage sensing and even self-repair and new propulsion strategies to power autonomous nanomechanical devices. Force spectroscopy is a technique to study reactions as a function of the restoring force of distorted reactants. Conventional force spectroscopy requires macromolecules, which limits molecular insights available from such studies. We have developed our own approach which relies on molecular force probes to control restoring forces in structurally diverse reactive moieties. You can learn more about our research by following the links.
We always look for bright, dedicated and ambitious graduate students and postdocs to join our team. If you are interested, do not hesitate to contact myself or other group members.
Roman
