ERC Starting Grant · 2025
Bio-inspired, Responsive, and Active Layered Materials: Bringing Synthetic Matter to the Bio-ReALM
In nature, evolution has shaped biomolecules with out-of-equilibrium processes to create organs with unparalleled mechanical strength and optical complexity. Surprisingly, the intrinsic ordering across many endo- and exoskeletons is the same. Elongated building blocks made of proteins or polysaccharides align and helically stack, forming layered liquid crystal structures. This ordering can be locally disrupted by defects. In arthropods, defects distribute stress and diffusely scatter light, granting the arthropods with astonishing toughness and noniridescent structural color. Materials scientists have long sought to make construction and coating materials more resilient and sustainable by…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.