Gary Blanchard

Professor Blanchard is a professor of chemistry who specializes in biomimetic interfaces. The ability to control the physical properties and chemical selectivity of an interface is an issue central to areas of science ranging from cellular function to heterogeneous catalysis and chemical sensing. The Blanchard group works on the design and synthesis of interfaces with an eye toward achieving this control. We are currently focusing our energies on catalytic and biomimetic systems because of their broad utility.

Biomimetic Interfaces. The creation of interfacial structures that can function biomimetically is a gateway to the design of biosensors. We have been actively involved in the creation of such structures where we deposit a lipid bilayer structure, with fluorescent and electrochemical probes imbedded at specifi locations within the interface. Our efforts are aimed at probing local organization and fluidity in the bilayer, so that we will be able to incorporate transmembrane proteins into these interfaces for use as sensing elements.