The Baio lab’s long-term goal is to identify the full spectrum of chemical interactions between biological surfaces and the environment, by developing and applying state of the art surface analytical techniques to characterize biomaterial interfaces. The chemical structure of any material’s surface dictates how it will interact with its environment. For example, when biomedical materials are placed within a patient, that object’s surface properties trigger the body’s reaction. Yet, a central challenge to identifying surface properties arises because of the difficulties applying surface analytical techniques to probe the chemistry of biological surfaces. The Baio group uses techniques that provide the conformation, orientation and structure of small molecules, lipids, proteins and DNA at the air-water interface, on polymer substrates, or within large tissue samples.
