Andrew Lyon Professor Office: 1100K MS&E Phone: 404-894-4090 Fax: 404-385-3399 E-mail Andrew Lyon Research Group Web site

B.A. (with Honors), Rutgers College, 1992; M.S., Northwestern University, 1993; Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1996

Hesburgh Award Teaching Fellow (GT award) - 2006; National Fresenius Award of Phi Lambda Upsilon - 2005; Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award - 2003; Blanchard Fellow - 2003; Sloan Research Fellow - 2002; Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award - 2000; NSF CAREER Award - 1999; Research Corporation Research Innovation Award - 1999

Research Interests

Dr. Lyon's research interests center around the development and implementation of new environmentally responsive materials for bioanalytical and biomedical applications. The group mainly focuses on the design of hydrogel nanoparticles with architectures that are tailored to the desired application.  For example, we have developed new materials that resist protein and cell adhesion in vivo. Other designs have been developed for targeted chemotherapy, bioanalytical sensing, and controlled drug delivery.
Because of the wide range of synthesis, fabrication and analysis methods used in the group, typical graduate student research projects will often involve polymer synthesis, bioconjugate synthesis, self-assembly or directed-assembly of colloidal materials, and extensive characterization of the resultant material properties. A variety of modern analytical methods are used to characterize and evaluate these materials and interfaces, including photon correlation spectroscopy (dynamic light scattering), fluorescence spectroscopy, quartz crystal microgravimetry, surface plasmon resonance, ellipsometry, optical microscopy, scanning probe microscopies, and electron microscopies.  Please see the group webpage for additional information.

Selected Publications

John, A. N. S.; Lyon, L. A., Local control over phase transitions in microgel assemblies. J. Phys. Chem. B 2008, 112, 11258-11263.

Bridges, A. W.; Singh, N.; Burns, K. L.; Babensee, J. E.; Lyon, L. A.; García, A. J., Reduced acute inflammatory responses to microgel conformal coatings. Biomaterials 2008, 29, 4605-4615.

Sorrell, C. D.; Lyon, L. A., Deformation Controlled Assembly of Binary Microgel Thin Films. Langmuir 2008, 24, 7216-7222.

St.John, A. N.; Breedveld, V.; Lyon, L. A., Phase Behavior in Highly Concentrated Assemblies of Microgels with Soft Repulsive Interaction Potentials. J. Phys. Chem. B 2007, 111, 7796-7801.

Singh, N.; Bridges, A. W.; Garcia, A. J.; Lyon, L. A., Covalent Tethering of Functional Microgel Films onto Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Surfaces. Biomacromolecules 2007, 8, 3271-3275.

Meng, Z.; Cho, J. K.; Debord, S.; Breedveld, V.; Lyon, L. A., Crystallization Behavior of Soft, Attractive Microgels. J. Phys. Chem. B 2007, 111, 6992-6997.

Kim, J.; Singh, N.; Lyon, L. A., Label-Free Biosensing with Hydrogel Microlenses. Angew. Chemie Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 1446-1449.

Nayak, S.; Lyon, L. A., Ligand-Functionalized Core/Shell Microgels with Permselective Shells. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 6706-6709.

Nayak, S.; Lee, H.; Chmielewski, J.; Lyon, L. A., Folate-Mediated Cell Targeting and Cytotoxicity Using Thermoresponsive Microgels. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 10258-10259.