Overview

Soft materials encompass the bulk of living tissues which possess characteristic living features such as being active, adaptive, and self-healing. Drawing inspiration from nature, the Guan Lab is focused on the design, synthesis, and study of dynamic soft materials and functional biomaterials. Through creative molecular design and chemical synthesis, we generate a plethora of supramolecular assemblies and polymers that are active, adaptive, malleable, and self-healing. In addition, we develop multifunctional biomaterials for the cellular delivery of various biomacromolecules, for CRISPR-Cas gene editing, and for immunomodulation. An overarching theme for our research is to build direct links between molecular structures and material properties, with the aim to rationally design soft materials from the bottom-up and control material properties at the molecular level. We explore many exciting questions at the interface of materials chemistry and biology. How can we make synthetic polymer materials more sustainable, recyclable, and environmentally friendly? How can we create synthetic materials that closely mimic living systems? How can we seamlessly interface manmade soft materials with living systems? How can we design molecular carriers that can efficiently deliver biomacromolecules to targeted cells to control biological function? How can we develop fuel and feedback-controlled non-equilibrium systems to realize a new generation of active and autonomous materials? Let’s explore and find out together!

Open Post-Doctoral Positions

1/29/2021   The laboratory of Prof. Zhibin Guan is seeking highly motivated post-doctoral scholars wishing to advance their research and career prospects. Candidates should have deep knowledge and experience in supramolecular chemistry, materials chemistry, chemical synthesis, and materials characterization techniques. For more information on the position, please follow this link.

Group News

9/03/2024   Congratulations Zhibin for publishing the perspective on sustainable polymers that stick inside and out in Science!

6/07/2024   Congratulations to Jordan for publishing his work on compatibilizing immiscible mixed plastics through in situ generated singlet nitrenes in Adv Mater!

5/16/2024   Roman, Vy and James passed orals. Congratulations!

3/29/2024   Congratulations to Roman for winning the competition for attending 2024 ACS LEADS Conference in Washignton DC!

3/15/2024   Welcome to the lab James! We look forward to doing great science together!

2/26/2024   Congratulations to Kosuke for publishing his work on compatibilizing polymer blends using a dynamically crosslinked polymer network in Angew. Chem. Int . Ed.!

1/31/2024   Welcome to the lab Basim and Erik! We look forward to doing great science together!

12/8/2023   Conratulations to Leslie for recieving DEI Graduate Leaders Fellowship from the School of Physical Sciences, UCI!

7/12/2023   Conratulations to Dipankar for recieving Outstanding Achivement Award from the Center for Complex and Active Materials, UCI!

6/07/2023   Conratulations to Leslie for winning the DEI Award from the School of Physical Sciences, UCI!

5/19/2023   Jayme and Leslie passed orals. Congratulations!

5/16/2023   Congratulations to Chase, Jordan and Kosuke for publishing their work on siloxane exchange as a robust chemistry for scalable production of high-performance vitrimers in Adv Mater!

3/01/2023   Welcome to the lab Roman! We look forward to doing great science together!

2/06/2023   Congratulations to Dipankar for publishing his work on waste free and sustainable dissipative self assembly in JACS!

2/03/2023   Congratulations to Chunfeng for publishing his work on precisely controlled dissipative self assembly by light and electricity in Chem Eu J!

1/24/2023   Welcome to the lab Vy! We look forward to doing great science together!

1/09/2023   Congratulations to Serxho for publishing the collaborative work with Dr. Sim lab on dissipative living materials in JACS!

12/05/2022   Congratulaitons to Collin for publishing his work on multifunctional bioreducible polymers for mRNA delivery in Chem Eu J!

11/10/2022   Congratulations to Collin for successfully defending his PhD thesis!

6/1/2022   Conratulations to Jordan for receiving Recognition as Continuing TA Award from the School of Physical Sciences, UCI and for getting married!

4/21/2022   Congratulations to Serxho for publishing his work on electrochemcial self-assembly in JACS and for being the proud new father of two baby girls!

3/7/2022   Congratulations to Collin for receiving the Graduate Dissertation Fellowsip!

3/1/2022   Welcome to the lab Jayme and Leslie! We look forward to doing great science together!

11/17/2021   Congratulations to Sean for publishing his work on Multivalent adjuvant design and for accepting a position at Genentech!

10/10/2021   Billy’s paper on Boroxine Networks was one of the most highly cited publications in JACS for the period 2018-2019! Congrats!

7/2/2021   Congratulations to Chase for successfully defending his PhD thesis, for his new job with Intel, and for their new baby on the way!

6/30/2021   Congratulations to Sean for starting his new job with Genentech next week!

6/25/2021   Congratulations to Cassandra and Mikhail for winning the Allergan summer research fellowship! Welcome back to lab!

6/20/2021   A warm welcome of new graduate students Leslie and Kyle and REU undergraduate student Eric for doing summer research with us!

3/23/2021   Jordan was recognized with an Honorable Mention for the 2021 NSF-GFRP competion. An excellent recognition for an excellent student!

2/11/2021   Congratulations to Chase for recieving the Graduate Dissertation Fellowship. This is a great award and will fund the completion of his dissertation.

2/7/2021   Serxho won the prestigious NSERC postdoctoral fellowship from the Research Council of Canada. Congratulations Serxho, wonderful and deserved recognition!

2/5/2021   Congratulations Chase for winning the La Verne Noyes Fellowship.

9/9/2020   Congratulations Chase for winning the Gebel Award as well the Department Service team award!

9/1/2020   A warm welcome to our newest group member, Serxho Selmani, from our neighbor to the north.

8/3/2020   Welcome Sean Fan to the Guan Lab! We are glad to have you.

6/3/2020   Congratulations to Jing for the wonderful offer from Wiley and best wishes for the new job!

6/2/2020   Eric passed his candidacy exam! Congrats, Eric.

5/22/2020   A great congratulations to Hurik for her excellent thesis defense and for starting a new career at Gilead!

4/27/2020   Congratulations to Hurik for her second first-author paper on chemothermally driven out-of-equilibrium materials!

3/3/2020   Congratulations to Chase for being selected for the La Verne Noyes Fellowship.

2/24/2020Our new RNA delivery paper is accepted by Biomacromolecules. Congrats to all authors, especially to Collin for your first Guan Lab paper!

2/10/2020   Congratulations to Hurik for publishing her work on self-healing magnetic nanocomposites!

2/3/2020   A warm welcome to our newest group member Jordan Castro!

12/11/19   Congratulations to Billy for publishing our first active supramolecular material paper using redox chemical fuel!

10/11/19   Congratulations to Chase for publishing his work on silyl ether metathesis for vitrimer design!

6/27/19   Congratulations to Alex and Tyler for their excellent PhD thesis defenses!

6/27/19   Congratulations to our undergraduate Jonathan for winning the Allergan fellowship!

6/25/19   Warm welcome to our visiting scientist Dr. Jing Tang!

6/20/19   Congratulations to our undergraduates Tomas and Jonathan for being accepted into the SURP program!

5/23/19   Congratulations to Hurik for winning the Gebel award!

5/17/19   Collin, Dan and Taylor passed orals!

4/8/19   Congratulations to our former summer intern Judy Shon for winning the NSF GRFP fellowship!

4/2/19   Welcome to the lab Eric Schwartz! We're excited to explore new chemistry with you.

3/8/19   Congratulations to Collin for winning the Vertex Award!

12/11/18   Our recent work on recyclable thermosets is selected for the Research of the Year 2018 by C&EN News!

12/4/18   Warm welcome to our new group member, Joe Capani! We look forward to exploring new science together.

10/3/18   Zhibin’s postdoc adviser at Caltech, Prof. Frances Arnold, is awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year. Congratulations to Frances!

9/26/18   Congratulations to Alex for winning the Allergan Graduate Fellowship

8/6/18   Congrats to James Neal for successfully defending his PhD thesis and joining Hewlett-Packard

6/30/18   Zhibin succesfully organzied the 2018 Bioinspired Materials Gordon Research Conference

5/9/18   Congratulations to our former group member Davoud for taking a faculty position with Syracuse University

5/7/18   Congratulations to Billy for his recent JACS Communication on boroxine vitrimer

4/13/18   Congrats to Alex for our adipocyte delivery paper being accepted by Biomaterials

4/12/18   Congrats to James and Nate that our mechanical gradient work has been highlighted by the Department of Energy.