Angelica Elkan

Congratulations to Zuckerman Faculty Scholar Angelica Elkan, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, and The Jan Koum Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Tel Aviv University, on the publication of Lattice bond chains administer kink anisotropy and inform strategies of theophylline crystal self-healing, in the June 2025 issue of iScience. Dr. Elkan and her team uncover how the molecular-level mechanisms of classical crystal growth—driven by direct monomer incorporation—can be harnessed to rationally control crystal shape, size, and even healing behavior.

Summary:
How molecular-level understanding of the crystal growth mechanisms and their relation to lattice bonds inform the rational design of crystals with desired shapes and properties has remained elusive. Here we employ theophylline crystals and drive them into classical growth mode, in which the crystals grow molecule-by-molecule and new layers are generated by two-dimensional nucleation.