Gerard Wong’s career has taken a few unexpected turns since he finished his thesis on solid state physics. Degree in hand but reluctant to be a "cog in a big research group," he chose a different direction.

"I want to try to do pioneering work," he said. "For me that meant considering a less mature field of physics and looking for groups doing interesting research in new areas."

A postdoctoral research position with the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in The Netherlands allowed him to explore a broader class of problems, including polymers and liquid crystals. Still searching for a promising new field two years later, he became intrigued by biomolecular materials and biophysics and took a second post-doctoral research position with the University of California, Santa Barbara.

"It’s been a long and circuitous route to where I am now from where I started, but in biophysics, a lot of the organizing principles draw from the physics of polymers and liquid crystals, so my background fits this new field," he said.

Wong joined the faculty in the University of Illinois Department of Materials Science and Engineering in January 2000. He also holds appointments in physics and bioengineering and has an affiliation with the Microelectronics Laboratory.

"The work I do is inherently interdisciplinary, so this opportunity to work with that combination of first-rate, top-ranked departments is great for me, and it’s critical for this new area of research where we hope to combine materials science with biology in fruitful and unexpected ways."

Building on his postdoctoral research, Wong already is making pioneering contributions that could prove important for gene therapy and drug delivery. He and colleagues published a series of papers correlating how DNA self-assembles with charged membranes to make a series of intricate structures.

These findings are important for understanding how DNA sets express in a cell line. One potential application is for development of synthetic molecules that mimic viruses in their ability to move through the body to particular cells and deliver therapeutic genes. Synthetic molecules constructed from known materials may have a safety advantage over viruses, which are not yet well understood, Wong noted.

Wong and his colleagues generated more excitement last summer with a report, printed in the journal Science, that detailed a strategy for using a structural protein found in cells to make capsules. Wong was lead author of the paper, written with colleagues Cyrus Safinya, Youli Li, and Alison Lin, University of California at Santa Barbara; Paul Janmey, University of Pennsylvania; and Jay Tang, Indiana University.

The researchers discovered a way to make chemicals spontaneously self-assemble into multilayered tubules similar to bacterial cell walls. The rigid, stable capsules have a middle lipid layer between two layers of actin filaments.

Water-filled spaces between the layers could be used for a variety of applications, including delivery of drugs, Wong suggested. This research was selected as a "Chemistry Highlight of 2000" by Chemistry and Engineering News magazine.

A new project with biomedical applications is focused on developing a better understanding of intricate electrostatic interactions between DNA and cytoskeletal proteins, which could lead to treatments to alleviate suffering from cystic fibrosis. Debilitation caused by this disease is attributed in part to DNA and cytoskeletal protein accumulations in a victim’s lungs. These accumulations contribute to the thickening of mucus that impairs breathing and can lead to long-term infections.

"This is a polymer physics problem. Here’s an instance where we might be able to come up with some new therapeutic strategies by understanding some of the biophysical aspects of the disease," Wong said.

Research that combines materials science and biology has also offered opportunities to investigate intriguing science problems. In addition to self-assembled systems, Wong is trying to understand how objects with the same charge attract rather than repel each other, as typically expected.

"Ideas often belong more to a conversation than to any one individual," he said. "When you have such good colleagues at the University of Illinois, ideas just happen."

A new direction for research may include investigating new strategies for postgenomics biology, such as a protein chip for identifying, separating, and sorting proteins. Wong is also intrigued by the idea of using biological systems as templates for making new, inorganic materials that function in a nonbiological context, such as semiconducting nanoparticles.