Title: Crafting Nanoscale Interactions: from Atomic Stencil to Remote Neuromodulation
Abstract: Living systems organize and operate with rich function and remarkable precision. This control arises not only from chemical specificity, but from the spatially and dynamically regulated physical interactions at the fundamental nanoscale (e.g., structural, electrical, and mechanical). Encoding artificial nanomaterials with a similar level of control can provide a generalizable, tunable route for creating new materials and for communicating with living cells. In this seminar, I will present two such systems, developed using scalable wet-chemical synthesis grounded in thermodynamic principles, and demonstrate their subsequent behavior in action. First, site-specific structural interactions are encoded by patterning molecular patches on nanoparticles using the Atomic Stencil platform. By offering distinct domains of surface chemistry and patterns, this approach is broadly applicable to targeted delivery, catalysis, and assembly into materials with collective optical and mechanical properties. Second, on-demand electrical interactions are remotely controlled using ultrasound-activated piezoelectric nanostransducers, enabling a non-invasive tool to spatiotemporally modulate neuronal activity. Finally, I will discuss my future work on how such platforms can tailor nanomaterials to exhibit lifelike functionality and seamless integration with biological systems, including the brain.
Bio: Dr. Ahyoung Kim is a Caltech–Kavli Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology, working with Prof. Mikhail Shapiro and Prof. Chiara Daraio. She received her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign in 2022 under the supervision of Prof. Qian Chen, and her B.S. in Nanochemistry and Energy Engineering from UNIST in Korea in 2016. She is a 2023 Schmidt Science Fellow and an MRS Graduate Student Gold Award recipient, and has served as a DEI coordinator in Caltech’s Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Her research bridges materials chemistry and bioengineering by designing nanomaterials with programmable behaviors grounded in physical principles, enabling scalable, noninvasive materials–body interfaces.
Host: Prof. Eszter Boros