Biomolecular Materials

This activity supports fundamental materials science research for discovery, design and synthesis of functional materials and complex structures based on principles and concepts of biology. Biology provides a blueprint for translating atomic and nanoscale phenomena into mesoscale materials that display complex yet well-coordinated collective behavior. The major programmatic direction is on the science-driven creation of resilient materials and multiscale systems that exhibit well-coordinated functionality and information content approaching that of biological materials but capable of functioning under harsher, non-biological environments. This research activity seeks innovative fundamental science approaches for co-design and scalable synthesis of materials that coherently and actively manage multiple complex and simultaneous functions and tolerate abuse through autonomous repair and regrowth. New synthetic approaches and unconventional assembly pathways are sought to accelerate discovery/design of materials that will provide the foundation for transformative impacts on carbon dioxide removal, advanced manufacturing, and energy transfer and storage. An area of emphasis will be activities to understand and control assembly mechanisms to seamlessly integrate capabilities developed for one length scale across multiple length scales as the material is constructed.  Included is development of predictive models and AI/ML for data-driven science that accelerate materials discovery and support fundamental science to direct clean, energy efficient scalable synthesis with real-time adaptive control.

The program will not support projects that do not have a clear focus on fundamental materials science or are aimed at optimization of materials properties for any applications, device fabrication, sensor development, tissue engineering, understanding of underlying biological synthetic or assembly processes, biological research, or biomedical research.

To obtain more information about this research area, please see the proceedings of our Principal Investigators' Meetings. To better understand how this research area fits within the Department of Energy's Office of Science, please refer to the Basic Energy Science's organization chart and budget request.

For more information about this research area, please contact Dr. Aura Gimm.