Background:

• "Aguirre-Basualdo" award for Sciences, Sorbonne (France), 1996
• SPIE scholarship in Optical Science and Engineering, 2000.

Research activities in our group can be divided into two broad categories:

• Development and applications of functional, self-assembled, bioinspired anosystems.Nanophotonic applications to chemical measurements.
• Nanophotonic applications to chemical measurements.

Our research program is guided by the idea that a fertile scientific ground and a fascinating number of questions continue to await exploration at the interface between core sciences. For example, general physical principles dictate how viruses self-assemble from proteins and nucleic acids into a multifunctional biological machine . However, to elucidate the mechanisms of molecular self-assembly and those of the intra or extra- cellular virus transit new instrumentation is required . Another question is whether one could use the principles of biological assembly to make novel materials with bulk physical or chemical properties never seen before. Answering these questions may have profound societal impact through new cures or diagnostics of disease, better predictions of environmental changes, and better ways of energy management.

A virus-like particle self-assembled into a symmetric protein cage (transparent) encapsulating a functionalized gold nanocore. The complex has a diameter of 280 Å and has a tunable architecture

Atomic force micrograph of an Agrobacterium colony used as a laboratory system for brome mosaic virus RNA replication.