News & Events

Chenfeng Ke’s breakthrough material gets stronger the more it bends

The illustration shows how Chenfeng Ke’s smart polymer becomes stronger with use. Stretching breaks apart large clusters of cyclodextrin rings, which slide along polymer chains and reorganize into smaller crystalline structures when the material relaxes. (Courtesy: Ke)

11.10.2026

Plant-inspired natural coatings can beat forever chemicals

Inside a plant’s vasculature, like this cross section of a linden tree branch, resides a water transport molecule that has inspired WashU chemical engineers to develop a PFAS alternative that uses plant waste and fatty acids to produce waterproof coatings. The research is a big step toward the eventual goal of replacing forever chemicals with nontoxic alternatives. (Photo: Shutterstock)

11.03.2026

Locusts get a sensory assist from nanomaterials

A locust from the lab of Barani Raman equipped with a type of collagen foam on its antenna containing nanomaterials that can detect and collect trace chemical signatures. Raman and colleague Srikanth Singamaneni at McKelvey Engineering have developed a sensing approach that combines the benefits of biological sensing with synthetic sample collection techniques that allow precise identification of detected compounds. (Photo: Raman lab)

10.19.2026

New building blocks expand functions of photonic chips

Researchers at WashU have developed a new framework to expand the materials, functions and designs on a single chip, opening new possibilities for faster, more powerful and multifunctional photonic technologies. This image visualizes the design of a heterogeneous integrated photonic chip incorporating various functional single-crystalline nanomembranes. These ultrathin layers add capabilities that the underlying chip materials cannot provide alone. (AI generated image courtesy Bae lab).

10.08.2026

Clearing the way for renewable carbon fiber production

Microscopic “rebar” adds strength to a new kind of carbon fiber material that features functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes. WashU engineers developed the manufacturing process to make use of the waste material lignin and to further strengthen carbon fiber for use in the automotive and energy industries. (Photo: Yuan lab)

09.18.2026

Shake it off

With a Department of Defense grant, McKelvey Engineering researcher Christopher Cooper will develop materials to deter organisms from fouling surfaces in aquatic environments, work that could affect fuel efficiency in ships but also could improve the function of desalinization plants and medical devices in the human body. (Photo: Shutterstock)

08.31.2026

IMSE Graduate Student Selected for Olin-Chancellor's Fellowship

Program recognizes students’ exceptional academic and research accomplishments in their first year at WashU. (Photo Credit Gusaimas Akbar)

08.26.2026

A painless punch with a microneedle patch could detect kidney disease earlier

New research from the lab of Srikanth Singamaneni shows the early success of a microneedle patch that can be applied on the skin to quickly and safely capture biomarkers from the biofluid in the skin and quantify them accurately on the patch. The patch detected early signs of kidney injury and may one day support home or point-of-care monitoring without requiring refrigeration. (Credit: Singamaneni lab)

08.17.2026

New platform explored to meet emerging need in mechanobiology

Jae Park, a doctoral student in the lab of Alexandra Rutz, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, has developed a unique, dynamic platform with electricity-conducting biomaterials in which stiffness can be modulated by applying voltage. Such a platform can help researchers learn more about the potential to use conducting polymers to study mechanobiology and to study the effect of stiff environments on cells, which play a role in fibrosis and some types of cancer. (Credit: Jae Park)

06.12.2026