Prof. Hu's Research
Group
Our research focus is primarily on biomacromolecules,
including fibrous proteins such as silks, resilins,
elastins, keratins, collagens,
and variable plant proteins or polysaccharides, their structure-function
relationships and the exploration of modes to manipulate their biosynthesis,
self-assembly mechanism, molecular interactions and
processing to control the assembly of these biopolymer systems into different
functional materials for medical applications.
The biopolymer solution can be subsequently designed into a wide range
of biomaterials with tunable properties in our lab, including material matrixes for thermal,
mechanical, optical,
electrical, chemical,
pharmaceutical, computational
and biological applications.
Those biomaterials are providing important roles in tissue regeneration
medicine, controlled drug delivery, biosensors, biophotonics,
and nano-biotechnology. As biological molecules (e.g.
proteins), they can perfectly interact with human bodies without potential
toxicity or immunoreactions. As polymers, they can be easily fabricated into
variable material forms (such as films, sponges, gels, particles, fibers, or
composites) with controllable structures and properties.
