CPOS Seminar: "Developing a "genome" for atomic precision: DNA-templated luminescent silver nanoclusters"
Speaker: Dr. STACY COPP, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and EngineeringUniversity of California, Irvine
Abstract: Atomically precise nanoclusters provide the ultimate control over the light-matter interactions of nanoparticles. We are investigating a uniquely programmable class of these nanomaterials called DNA-stabilized silver nanoclusters (Ag-DNAs), which possess exciting potential for bioimaging and biosensing. DNA sequence selects the atomic size and fluorescence color of the encapsulated silver nanocluster. This "genomic" property has been used to produce a diversity of Ag-DNAs with 10-30 Ag atoms and 400 nm to 1,000 nm fluorescence emission peaks. I will discuss how we are combining high-throughput experimentation, machine learning, and analytical chemistry to better understand the structure-property relations of Ag-DNAs and enable their development for bioimaging and sensing. Our chemically-informed machine learning models can map DNA sequence onto silver nanocluster color, allowing us to decode the role of DNA sequence in sculpting silver nanoclusters and to discover new NIR Ag-DNAs that are well-suited for imaging in the biological tissue transparency windows. We also find evidence that the geometry of the Ag- DNA can strongly influence the photophysical and chiroptical properties of the nanocluster. This work advances the scientific framework for DNA as a programmable template for atomically precise nanostructures.
Bio: Stacy Copp is an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, where she holds the Samueli Faculty Development Chair and courtesy appointments in the Departments of Physics and Astronomy and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her research focuses on harnessing information-encoding macromolecules – polynucleic acids and block copolymers – as building blocks for novel optical and electronic materials. Due to the complexity of these molecular materials, her work incorporates machine learning and data mining for materials study and design. Copp earned a B.S. in physics and mathematics from the University of Arizona (2011) and Ph.D. in physics from UC Santa Barbara. Before joining UCI in 2019, she was a Hoffman Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Copp’s research has been recognized by awards including the AFOSR Young Investigator (2020), L’Oreal USA for Women in Science Fellowship (2018), and numerous postdoctoral and graduate fellowships.
