Murphy Research Group

Currently, Murphy group efforts are focused on two main areas: 1) Design and synthesis of conducting polymers and conducting polymer-biopolymer composites for use as artificial muscles, implantable electrodes and drug delivery vehicles. 2) Development of new methods to chemically-modify silk-based materials for applications such as targeted drug delivery or tumor imaging. 

Undergraduate research students in our group gain experience in organic small molecule and polymer synthesis, protein chemistry, chemical characterization techniques (FTIR, NMR, UV/vis, EDX, voltammetry) as well as physical characterization techniques (microscopy, mechanical and electrical properties). Students from a variety of majors including chemistry, biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, physics and engineering have taken part in our research, and have gone on to graduate/medical school or pursued industrial careers following graduation. For more information about joining our research group, please email Dr. Murphy.