Trevor Jones and Joanna Schneider, graduate students in chemical and biological engineering, were each honored with an Award for Excellence from the School of Engineering and Applied Science. The award recognizes advanced graduate students who have performed at the highest level as scholars and researchers.

Strains of microbes like yeast and E. coli can be engineered to produce useful chemicals and fuels, and can produce more fuel more efficiently by working together. The problem is that when grown together in co-cultures, the fastest-growing strain often outcompetes the others, causing the community to break down and stop chemical production. Now, Princeton researchers have discovered a new way to stabilize co-cultures of microbes using light. By engineering the faster-growing strain to respond to light, the researchers can control its growth using light pulses, stabilizing the community as a whole and optimizing it for chemical production.

Princeton researchers have invented bubble casting, a new way to make soft robots using "fancy balloons" that change shape in predictable ways when inflated with air.

Princeton researchers have solved a 54-year-old puzzle about why certain fluids strangely slow down under pressure when flowing through porous materials, such as soils and sedimentary rocks. The findings could help improve many important processes in energy, environmental, and industrial sectors from oil recovery to groundwater remediation.

The Jui Dasgupta Outstanding AI Award for the 2020-2021 academic year went to Nicholas Caggiano, Drew Carson and Madeleine Chalifoux.

Jonathan Conway, an expert in plant-microbe interactions, has joined the Princeton faculty as an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering.

A study published Sep. 22 in Nature details how an established physics theory governing bubble and droplet formation led to a new understanding of the principles organizing the contents of living cells. The work marks a seismic shift in researchers' ability both to understand and control the complex soft materials within our cells.

The Department of Energy has awarded funding to a team of Princeton chemists and engineers as part of its investment in technological solutions to reduce plastic waste. The team includes four CBE faculty members, who received funding for a project that seeks to expand foundational research on a polymer discovered earlier this year.

Researchers at Princeton University have built the world's smallest mechanically interlocked biological structure, a deceptively simple two-ring chain made from tiny strands of amino acids called peptides. A paper published August 23 in Nature Chemistry detailed a library of such structures made in their lab—two interlocked rings, a ring on a dumbbell, a daisy chain and an interlocked double lasso.