Crystals in Medicine and Machines

Abstract: In this talk, I show crystalline solid-state materials made from metal-organic frameworks can preserve vaccines and enhance their potency by creating a slow releasing depot of antigens that promote the formation of disease fighting antibodies. I will then make an awkward segue into how molecular crystals not only can show an impressive range of dynamic behaviors including bending, jumping, and exploding but that a new family of crystals we have discovered can act as solid-state muscles capable of doing hundreds of actuation cycles with micronewton forces at just-above-room temperature.