Hongbin Li

Professor in the Department of Chemistry at UBC and Canada Research Chair.

Research directions:

1. Protein Mechanics and Engineering: combining protein engineering with single molecule AFM and computation, we rationally design and engineer proteins with tailored mechanical properties.

2. Folding/Unfolding Dynamics: we use single molecule force spectroscopy techniques to investigate the folding/unfolding dynamics and mechanism of proteins at the single molecule level.

3. Protein-based Biomaterials: using the knowledge from protein mechanics studies, we rationally design protein-based biomaterials with tailored mechanical properties for various biomedical applications. We rationally tailor macroscopic mechanical properties of these biomaterials by programming the molecular sequence, and thus nanomechanical properties, of protein building blocks at the single-molecule level.

4. Polymer physical chemistry using single molecule AFM: we use single molecule AFM to investigate the conformational change of polymers at the singel molecule level. 

5. AFM imaing of biological materials

Co-Principal Investigator Awards