Proteins interacting with a surface

The Landes Research Group is at Midwest!

Looking over a new instrument.

A dot in the twin city

Proteins interacting with a surface

The Landes Research Group develops new spectroscopic tools to image chemical dynamics at interfaces at the limit of a single event. Using this super-resolved chemical knowledge, we create new models to understand and predict macroscale processes like protein separation and photocatalysis.

Ensemble vs. Single Molecule

A wide range of biological and materials processes rely on nanoscale interfacial dynamics. Single molecule methods allow us to identify the chemical complexity of these interactions by revealing the underlying populations that form the ensemble measurement. In doing so, we can identify and tune the rare chemical populations that play a crucial role in reactivity.

Towards Predictive Separations

The cost of bringing a new protein based therapeutic to market averages ~$2.6 billion dollars, of which 50% can be dedicated to isolating and purifying the active compound. A primary contributor to the cost is the empirical optimization of chromatographic separation. Our lab seeks to understand separations from the scale of individual analytes, with a goal to create a new predictive model of chromatography to eliminate the need for costly empirical methods.

Breaking the Abbe-Diffraction Limit

The Abbe diffraction limit sets a lower bound of a few hundred nanometers for the size of objects we can observe with traditional optical microscopy. This limit is defined by lightâ€™s wavelength. Our lab develops new mathematical methods to break the Abbe diffraction limit and achieve spatial resolutions of just a few nanometers and time resolutions faster than traditional cameras frame times.

New Graduate Student 10/28/2024

We are happy to welcome our new Graduate Student Ashiq Rahman. We look forward to what you will do in the coming years, Ashiq!

Lab Outing 10/20/2024

Apple and pumpkin picking, corn maze, horse carriage ride, and face painting — a fun fall afternoon at the Curtis Orchard & Pumpkin Patch!

New Postdoctoral Scholar 10/06/2024

We are happy to welcome our new Postdoctoral Researcher Tasnim Ahmed. We look forward to all of your future successes!

New Postdoctoral Scholar 07/28/2024

We are extremely happy to welcome our new Postdoctoral Researcher Cong Xu. All the best for your future accomplishments in this group!

In the news... 04/19/2024

Christy Landes elected 2023 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Read more here.

In the news... 02/15/2024

Christy Landes wins the 2024 Kazuhiko Kinosita Award in Single-Molecule Biophysics. Read more here.

More News

Ostovar, B., Lee, S.A., Mehmood, A., Farrell, K., Searles, E.K., Bourgeois, B., Chiang, W.-Y., Misiura, A., Gross, N., Al-Zubeidi, A., Dionne, J.A.,Landes, C. F., Zanni, M., Levine, B.G., Link, S., "The role of the plasmon in interfacial charge transfer " Sci. Adv. 2024, 10, 27, eadp3353

The role of the plasmon in interfacial charge transfer

Adhikari, S., Gross, N., Wilson, K.S., Verma, O., Jia, Z., Link, S., Landes, C.F., "On-Chip Lock-In Detection for Ultrafast Spectroscopy of Single Particles" J. Phys. Chem. C 2024, 128, 21, 8708–8715

Carlin, C.C., Dai, A.X., Al-Zubeidi, A., Simmerman, E.M., Oh, H., Gross, N., Lee S.A., Link, S., Landes, C.F., da Jornada, F.H., Dionne, J.A., "Nanoscale and ultrafast in situ techniques to probe plasmon photocatalysis" Chem. Phys. Rev. 2023, 4, 4, 041309

Nanoscale and ultrafast in situ techniques to probe plasmon photocatalysis

Gross, N., Wang, W., Brasel, S.,Searles, E.K, Bourgeois,B.,Dionne, J.A.,Landes, C. F., Link,S., "High-Throughput Screening of Optical Properties of Glass-Supported Plasmonic Nanoparticles Fabricated by Polymer Pen Lithography" J. Phys. Chem. C 2023, 127, 39, 19607–19619

High-Throughput Screening of Optical Properties of Glass-Supported Plasmonic Nanoparticles Fabricated by Polymer Pen Lithography

Jones, A.,Searles, E.K, Mayer,M.,Hoffmann, M., Gross, N., Oh, H., Fery, A., Link,S.,Landes, C. F., "Active Control of Energy Transfer in Plasmonic Nanorod–Polyaniline Hybrids " J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2023, 14, 36, 8235–8243

Active Control of Energy Transfer in Plasmonic Nanorod–Polyaniline Hybrids

Oh, H.,Searles, E.K, Chatterjee,S.,Jia, Z., Lee, S.A., Link,S.,Landes, C. F., "Plasmon Energy Transfer Driven by Electrochemical Tuning of Methylene Blue on Single Gold Nanorods " ACS Nano 2023, 17, 18, 18280–18289

Plasmon Energy Transfer Driven by Electrochemical Tuning of Methylene Blue on Single Gold Nanorods

Gross, N.,Kuhs, C.T, Ostovar,B.,Chiang, W.Y., Wilson, K.S., Volek,T.S., Faitz,Z.M., Carlin, C.C., Dionne, J.A., Zanni, M.T., Gruebele,M., Roberts,S.T., Link,S.,Landes, C. F., "Progress and Prospects in Optical Ultrafast Microscopy in the Visible Spectral Region: Transient Absorption and Two Dimensional Microscopy " J. Phys. Chem. C 2023, 127, 30, 14557–14586