search Group
ing the Knight Research Group’s mission to design synthetic and transport and catalysis with finely tuned metal-binding
nanomaterials that rival the binding capabilities of proteins. sites. Another group is taking inspiration from Nobel Prize win-
ning directed evolution to identify a complementary screening
When Abby returned to Carolina in July of 2018, the group con- strategy to identify synthetic materials with desirable binding
sisted of her and a single undergraduate student, Delaney Da- properties.
vis, who spent the summer assembling the research laboratory
on the third floor of Caudill Laboratories. Since then, the Knight Outside of the lab, Abby is engaged in the department through
Research Group has rapidly grown and now consists of six un- developing a new course in bioorganic chemistry, as an advi-
dergraduate students, six graduate students, and a postdoc- sor to the Graduate Committee for Professional Development,
toral researcher. and through leading the organization of the first annual grad-
uate student proposal development competition “Sci-athon,”
Abby’s research targets a deeper understanding of how to modeled after the Scialog program sponsored by the Research
generate macromolecular materials with complex functions Corporation for Scientific Advancement to promote cross-divi-
inspired by biological systems. To tackle this challenge, her sional scientific dialog.
interdisciplinary research team uses techniques and perspec-
tives from synthetic chemistry, chemical biology, and polymer In the broader scientific community, Abby is a member of the
science. Early Career Advisory Board for ACS Biomaterials Science and
Engineering and her group is actively engaged in bringing their
One group of researchers is targeting mimicking metallopro-
research to the larger North Carolina community.
teins – proteins that serve critical biological roles in storage
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