Associated Design Team Members

• Roger Howe
• Jay Keasling

In nature, diatoms assemble themselves by a recursive process that creates equisite fractal-like geometries. From a nanofabrication perspective, a key feature of the process is that the initial conditions in the system determine smaller scale structures.

We are investigating the role of a peptide family called silafins, which appear to play an important role in diatom structure. Our research may improve our understanding of the relationship between genetics and structure.

Short-term goals:

• Form diatom-like silicon dioxide structures in vitro.
• Create a parametric mathematical model of the formation physics.
• Modify the boundary conditions to make engineered structures.