Research Areas Nanoplasmonics, Nanophotonics, Biophotonics

Research Interests Development of Novel Plasmonic Sensors and Their Optofluidic Integrated Platforms for Innovative Diagnostics and Environmental Monitoring.
Nanoplasmonic sensors have attracted great interests owing to their superior sensing performance. We are interested in the development of novel optofluidic platforms integrated with uniform plasmonic nanostructures for various sensing applications.
For example, we are currently working on next-generation optofluidic molecular diagnostic chips to achieve ultrafast amplification of target genes via optical polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by taking advantage of rapid light-to-heat conversion of the plasmonic nanostructures. In addition, we are interested in optofluidic sensing platforms which enable in-situ sensitive monitoring of various biological molecules under complex environments.

Development and Innovative Biomedical Applications of Artificial Biological Materials by Interfacing with Inorganic Metamaterials.
Our group is also interested in the rational design and synthesis of artificial biological materials by mimicking (or enhancing) key functions of their biological counterparts. For example, the electron transport chain (ETC) in mitochondria is essential for maintaining mitochondrial functions. The ETC often becomes dysfunctional due to mitochondrial DNA mutation or reactive oxygen species. We have recently developed artificial electron transfer pathways in the ETC of the mitochondria by interfacing with inorganic metamaterials, which dramatically improve the ETC activity of mitochondria.

Tailor-made and Large-scale Synthesis and Engineering of Novel Plasmonic Metamaterials and On-demand Printing at Multi-scales.
As a chemical engineer, our group are more focusing on the large-scale synthesis and engineering of plasmonic metamaterials. To this end, we have shown that uniform monolayer of plasmonic colloidal nanoparticles assembled at an air-water interface can be an excellent toolbox for on-demand delivery and applications of the plasmonic nanoparticles. For example, we have recently proposed capillary-mediated inverse transfer which allows to print a monolayer of various plasmonic nanoparticles on-demand without applying mechanical forces.

Selected Publications Yuseung Jo et al., Inner membrane-bound gold nanoparticles as efficient electron transfer mediators for enhanced mitochondrial electron transport chain activity, Nano Letters (2022)

Keumrai Whang et al., Direct and Precise Determination of Volumetric Mass Transfer Coefficient of Carbon Monoxide for Miniaturized Gas-liquid Reactors via Sensitive Probing of Raman Transitions, Chemical Engineering Journal, 429, 132260 (2022)

Keumrai Whang et al., Water-wettable Open Plasmonic Nanocavities for Ultrasensitive Molecular Detections in Multiple Phases, Nano Letters, 21 (14), pp 6194-6201 (2021)

Yonghee Shin et al., Microfluidic Multi-scale Homogeneous Mixing with Uniform Residence Time Distribution for Rapid Production of Various Metal Core–shell Nanoparticles, Advanced Functional Materials, 31, 202007856 (2021)

Jeehan Chang et al., "Generalized On-demand Production of Nanoparticle Monolayers on Arbitrary Solid Surfaces via Capillarity-Mediated Inverse Transfer, Nano Letters, 19 (3), pp 2074-2083 (2019)

Jin-Ho Lee et al., General and Programmable Synthesis of Hybrid Liposome/metal Nanoparticles, Science Advances, 2, e1601838 (2016)

Kihoon Kim et al., Interfacial liquid-state surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, Nature Communications, 4, 2182 (2013)

Professional Experience Director, Institute of Integrated Biotechnology, Sogang University (2019-present)
Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University (2017-present)
Trustee of the Korean Institute of Chemical Engineers (2016-present)
Academic board of the Koreans BioChip Society (2016-present)
Editor of Journal (NICE) from The Korean Institute of Chemical Engineers (2016-present)
Editorial Board Member, Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group) (2015-present)
Chair, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University (2017-2019)
Visiting Scholar, University of California at Berkeley (2014-2015)