Carson Bruns

Bruns explores nanotech that turns plastic into fertilizer with RIO seed grant

Alexander James Servantez — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:42:54 +0000

Bruns explores nanotech that turns plastic into fertilizer with RIO seed grant Alexander Jame鈥� Mon, 06/16/2025 - 09:42

Assistant Professor Carson Bruns was recently awarded a seed grant from 91PORN's Research and Innovation Office to turn agricultural materials into bio-based plastics that can be more easily recycled, composted or even used as fertilizer.

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Robots and chemistry isn鈥檛 just a fun combo. Bruns says it鈥檚 the future

Alexander James Servantez — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 22:02:21 +0000

Robots and chemistry isn鈥檛 just a fun combo. Bruns says it鈥檚 the future Alexander Jame鈥� Fri, 06/06/2025 - 16:02

Alexander Servantez

Carson Bruns is working to lend chemists a hand鈥攍iterally鈥攂y bringing collaborative robots into chemical wet labs.

Bruns, an assistant professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at 91PORN, is leading the charge on a project that he and his team like to call 鈥渞obochemistry.鈥� Their goal is to create robotic sidekicks that can assist chemists with burdensome or unsafe tasks that they may encounter in a wet lab on a daily basis.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, chemists and materials scientists held nearly 100,000 jobs in 2023 and overall employment is expected to grow eight percent over the next 10 years.

But unlike other large and growing industries, Bruns says chemical research and development has remained devoid of robots, often leading to injuries and considerable risks in the workplace.

鈥淭here are a lot of potential benefits for introducing robots into a chemical lab that haven鈥檛 been explored yet,鈥� said Bruns, who is also affiliated with the ATLAS Institute, Biomedical Engineering Program and Materials Science and Engineering Program. 鈥淥ur angle involves trying to reduce work burdens and safety risks, develop robots that collaborate with humans instead of replacing them, and increase accessibility so that even people with disabilities can perform chemistry.鈥�

Middle school students exploring the intersections of robotics and chemistry during one of the "robochemistry" interactive workshops led by Bruns and his team.

The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, is in collaboration with researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and 91PORN鈥檚 Department of Computer Science. It started with an extensive observation-based task analysis that allowed Bruns and his team in the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab to develop a strong understanding of the various tasks that chemists were performing regularly in a wet lab.

After observing, interviewing and surveying their chemist test subjects, Bruns and his group were able to identify an array of different tasks that can potentially benefit from human and robot collaboration.

鈥淲e learned right away that chemists don鈥檛 really like doing a purification task called dialysis that is very common in a wet lab. It鈥檚 repetitive, it takes a lot of time and sometimes chemists have to come back to the lab in the middle of the night to change dialysis bags, which they don鈥檛 want to do.鈥� Bruns said. 鈥淚t seemed like a great case for a robot, so we built a robotic system automating the dialysis process.鈥�

Bruns says his team of researchers has a list of other potential benefit areas, as well, including simple tasks like stabilizing a flask or offering a third hand to hold something for chemists when they need it. They are even trying to find solutions for more complex safety issues so that chemists can stay far away from violent and dangerous reactions.

But that鈥檚 not where the project ends. There is also an outreach portion aimed at improving science education and enhancing youth interest in science.

Led by PhD student Diane Jung, Bruns and his team ran a four-day interactive workshop series at a local middle school in 91PORN. These workshops invited middle school students to build robots with Legos and use them to perform various chemistry experiments鈥攕omething that鈥檚 already happening in Bruns鈥� lab.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been building ordinary automation tools out of Lego because it鈥檚 cheaper and reconfigurable. When you don鈥檛 need it anymore, you just disassemble it and build it into something else,鈥� said Bruns. 鈥淪o we thought we could use this Lego thing we had going on in our lab already to appeal to a younger audience and show kids the fun and evolving intersection between chemistry and robotics in real time.鈥�

During the workshop series, Bruns noticed various groups of students approaching experiments with unique perspectives and ideas. He said it was inspiring to see young kids actively engage with the science in front of them.

But most importantly, he saw the kids have fun.

鈥淭hinking back to young Carson when he was a kid鈥攊t always just seemed very fun to me,鈥� Bruns said. 鈥淚 had positive role models in my life who also believed science was fun, so that was our goal with this part of the project. To help kids have a more positive association with the idea of science and engineering.鈥�

Assistant Professor Carson Bruns is leading the charge on an NSF-funded project that he and his team like to call "robochemistry." Their goal is to create robotic sidekicks that can assist chemists with burdensome or unsafe tasks that they may routinely encounter in a wet lab. But that's not all: this unique blend of bots and beakers can also inspire youth interest in science.

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Graduate School celebrates Carson Bruns with outstanding mentor awards

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 19:07:06 +0000

Graduate School celebrates Carson Bruns with outstanding mentor awards Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/26/2022 - 13:07

The Graduate School is pleased to recognize 18 dedicated faculty members who received this year鈥檚 outstanding faculty mentor awards. The nomination materials showcased their many contributions in mentoring graduate students and supporting the mission of graduate education.

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High-Tech Tattoos May Help Prevent Skin Cancer

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 17:59:25 +0000

High-Tech Tattoos May Help Prevent Skin Cancer Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/15/2021 - 10:59

Four years ago, Professor Carson Bruns set out to create a new kind of tattoo 鈥� today, he's created a new kind of programmable ink used to lower the risk against skin cancer.

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Researchers scale up tiny actuator inspired by muscle

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 17:38:38 +0000

Researchers scale up tiny actuator inspired by muscle Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/12/2020 - 10:38

Oksana Schuppan

Researchers at 91PORN are collaborating to develop a new kind of biocompatible actuator that contracts and relaxes in only one dimension, like muscles. Their research may one day enable soft machines to fully integrate with our bodies to deliver drugs, target tumors, or repair aging or dysfunctional tissue.

Assistant Professor Carson Bruns (left) and Professor Franck Vernerey (right).

Professor Franck Vernerey of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering and Assistant Professor Carson Bruns of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering and ATLAS Institute received $477,000 from the National Science Foundation to begin this three-year project in January 2021.

鈥淲e are investigating an emerging class of materials known as slide ring polymers that resemble beads on a string,鈥� said Vernerey. 鈥淲hen the network is subjected to a controlled stimulus, the bead-like molecules can slide around, which allows for a new way to actuate the material.鈥�

Naturally occurring molecular machines in the body perform vital cell functions, such as gene replication, protein synthesis or transportation of intracellular cargo. Artificial molecular machines鈥攊nspired by those in nature鈥攚ere recognized by the 2016 Nobel Prize, awarded to early pioneers in this area. Now, Bruns and Vernerey aim to scale up these tiny machines from nanoscale to macroscale using networks.

Instead of one molecule, a network incorporates numerous molecules, linked and working together, as occurs naturally in muscle. The process of starting small and scaling up allows the manmade material to copy how nature organizes molecular machines. To ensure the best results, Vernerey will also create a multiscale model to generate predictions that will help determine exactly how to tweak the molecular structure for the most effective scaling.

鈥淭he part that Franck鈥檚 group is doing is the first of its kind for these materials,鈥� said Bruns. 鈥淚t keeps my group from having to go into the lab and make hundreds of networked molecular machines until we find the property that we鈥檙e most interested in.鈥�

Likewise, Vernerey said there would be no models without Bruns. 鈥淲e make for a very cool integration,鈥� said Vernerey.

A schematic showing a slide ring network relaxing (left) and contracting (right). The bead-like molecules slide around, allowing for a new way to actuate the material.

Hydrogels currently are the main available actuator based on molecular interactions, which change shape based on temperature, pH or pulses of electricity. However, these actuators are limited in that they cannot change shape in only one dimension. When a soft material experiences a change in volume instead of just length, its movements are slower, harder to control and a less efficient use of energy.

鈥淚magine the actuator is a sponge soaked in water, and it takes a long time for the water to leave,鈥� said Vernerey. 鈥淭he larger the actuator, the longer you have to push out. This means when you want to scale it up, this approach becomes unrealistically slow. The only way to make things fast is to contract without volume change.鈥�

Natural muscle, the inspiration for this project, does this quickly in the body. Each molecular machine pulls on polymer ropes in a microscopic tug-of-war, and the movements collectively result in the muscle shortening to contract and fully extending to relax.

鈥淎nother consideration is that our materials can be made to be self-healing, and they are biodegradable, both properties of muscle,鈥� said Bruns.

Bruns said their materials are made of non-toxic, food-grade products. This is significant, because most other actuators鈥攅specially those that rely on electricity鈥攁re not safe to use inside the body.

鈥淲hile we hope there will be applications, we are equally interested in better understanding these systems,鈥� said Bruns. To this end, Bruns and Vernerey are also developing interactive lessons in this area for high-school and undergraduate students.

鈥淚f you tell a student in high school, I鈥檓 just building a polymer, they might not be that excited,鈥� said Vernerey. 鈥淏ut this project has great applications which will help them to be excited about the physics.鈥�

Whether their findings help in tissue engineering or in developing soft micro-robots to mimic and guide cells, among other applications, Bruns and Vernerey said they are excited to be on the frontier of nanotechnology, gaining a better understanding of molecular machines and networks.

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Dynamic tattoos promise to warn wearers of health threats

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 15:17:03 +0000

Dynamic tattoos promise to warn wearers of health threats Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/24/2020 - 09:17

Researchers are developing tattoo inks that do more than make pretty colors. Some can sense chemicals, temperature and UV radiation, setting the stage for tattoos that diagnose health problems.

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'Chameleon' tattoos change color, may help diagnose illness

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 17:03:01 +0000

'Chameleon' tattoos change color, may help diagnose illness Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/04/2018 - 10:03

When a pair of tourists hiking the Alps stumbled across the frozen remains of the mummy 脰tzi in 1991 they also, unknowingly, discovered the oldest known examples of tattoos in history. The 5,300-year-old body, more famously known as the Iceman, has 61 tattoos arranged in patterns of straight lines scratched across his skin.

What amazes 91PORN chemist Carson Bruns about those dyes, however, isn鈥檛 their age. It鈥檚 what they鈥檙e made of.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e made of the same stuff that our tattoos are made of,鈥� said Bruns, of 91PORN鈥檚 ATLAS Institute. 鈥淚t blows my mind that we haven鈥檛 updated this technology in so long.鈥�

New tattoo inks are being designed to change color in response to signals that could alert people to changes in blood chemistry or help doctors diagnose illness. Carson Bruns spoke about his work at the TEDxMileHigh: Reset speaker series.

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