The oceans abound with a fascinating array of materials produced by nature. Barnacles cement themselves to rocks.  Starfish use adhesives for locomotion.  Oysters aggregate to build reef structures.  Mussels generate an impressive adhesive that can bond to nearly any surface.  Our laboratory is working to understand how such biological materials function, design synthetic mimics, and develop applications for these materials.

Click on the following figures to find out more about each research project.

Marine organisms producing materials:

An oyster reef, a mussel sticking to glass, barnacles, and a kelp forest.

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