Excitonics + Photochemisty (ExP) Lab

Team leader: Jeffrey Gorman @ Durham University, Dept. Chemistry

Harnessing Biology to Accelerate Quantum Materials Discovery

The challenge: Discovering new quantum/semiconductor materials is slow. Traditional chemistry tests one molecule at a time.

Our approach: Biology screens millions of variants simultaneously. We’re working to harness this massive throughput for semiconductor discovery.

By programming DNA to assemble organic semiconductors with nanometer precision, we create libraries of thousands of quantum materials in parallel—accelerating discovery by a million-fold compared to traditional methods.

What We Do

We combine three disciplines to unlock biology’s potential for materials chemistry:

Synthetic Organic Chemistry – Design and synthesise new semiconductor building blocks
DNA Nanotechnology – Program biological assembly to create precise molecular architectures
Ultrafast Spectroscopy – Measure quantum properties at the nanoscale

This unique combination lets us explore vast chemical space rapidly, identifying the next generation of materials for quantum sensors, LEDs, photovoltaics, and quantum information systems.

Why Biology Changes Everything

Traditional materials chemistry: ~100 compounds per year
Our DNA-programmed approach: 100,000+ variants tested in parallel

Biology has evolved exquisite molecular control over billions of years. We’re tapping into this untapped resource to revolutionise how we discover functional materials.

Interested in joining us? We welcome talented researchers from chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering backgrounds. Get in touch →