Formerly the Biomaterials Laboratory, which was established in the College of Engineering under the direction of Dr. Knowlton (MSMSE and ECE) and Dr. Oxford (Biology), it was later named the W.M. Keck NanoEngineering Laboratory to recognize the university’s first grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation. Since its establishment, the Keck Lab has undergone significant enhancements on multiple fronts associated with DNA nanotechnology, including DNA reaction networks, nucleic acid memory, quantum DNA materials, and biochemical sensing. These various areas of research are led by the MSMSE’s Nanoscale Materials & Device Group Principal Investigators (Drs. Knowlton (view Bill Knowlton’s webpage), Yurke (view Bernard Yurke’s webpage), Hughes, Graugnard (view Elton Graugnard’s webpage), Kuang, Mass (view Olga Mass’s webpage), and Lee (view Jeunghoon Lee’s webpage)), as well as Dr. Hayden (view Eric Hayden’s webpage) from the Biology Department. After moving from the Micron Engineering Center (MEC) to the Environmental Research Building (ERB) labs in 2012, the lab moved into a new state-of-the-art facility in the Micron Center for Materials Research (MCMR) in 2020. Dr. Natalya Hallstrom is currently managing the lab in collaboration with the Keck Lab supervisory committee (Drs. Lee, Hayden, and Mass).
National Institutes of Health (NIH), Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN) for Idaho Award
NIH Development Program: Limited Competition for IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA): 3-D Technology for Advanced Sensor Systems
National Science Foundation (NSF): Toward Universal Bottom-Up Nanofabrication with DNA
College of Engineering – Laboratory space and facilities support
Department of Materials Science and Engineering – Facilities support
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering – Facilities support
Current Research Funding
Department of Energy’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DOE EPSCoR) (Phases I and II: August 2019−August 2023): DNA-Controlled Dye Aggregation—A Path to Create Quantum Entanglement
Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (August 2019−August 2022): Optimizing DNA-Assembled Dye Aggregates for Quantum Coherent Exciton Devices
National Science Foundation, partnered with the Semiconductor Research Corporation (July 2018−June 2023): SemiSynBio: Nucleic Acid Memory
