The beauty of biological materials :

Biological organism are mesmerizing. They produce beautiful materials with exquisite complexity in mild conditions: strong composites with intricate toughening motives, soft hydrogels that feel and cure damages, or active structures where the orchestration of chemical transformations powers motion and adaptive behaviour. Fascinated by biological materials, I aim to replicate in synthetic systems the key concept at the origin of their exceptional behaviours.

DNA self-assembly a versatile toolbox for molecular control in synthetic system:

DNA is best known to carry the genetic information of life, encoded in a sequence of four nucleotides. Over the last years, DNA self-assembly also established itself as the most promising toolbox to control both nanoscale structuration, as well as dynamic and logic processes with strand displacement reactions. I am currently developping a DNA based platform for the assembly advanced hydrogels. The goal is to lever on the molecular control offered by DNA self-assembly to design bioinspired hydrogels with unique mechanical behaviour: self-healing, mechanofluorescence and non-linear elasticity.