From ancient art to modern medicine: Teri Odom’s golden nanoscale innovations

Charlyn Paradis
person wearing blue sweater

Teri Odom

Teri Odom, the Joan Husting Madden and William H. Madden, Jr. Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University, has been honored as the 2025 recipient of the prestigious John Gamble Kirkwood Award. The distinction, presented by the Department of Chemistry and the American Chemical Society New Haven Local Section, celebrates outstanding research contributions in the physical sciences.

On Sept. 10, Odom visited the Chemistry department to deliver the award lecture and accept the Kirkwood Medal.

Odom’s research focuses on designing structured nanoscale materials by leveraging the exceptional properties of precious metals. Applications of the unique materials produced by her lab include nanomedicine, nano-lasing, photonics, and bioimaging. 

Her lecture highlighted the innovative use of gold’s remarkable optical and physical properties in designing nanoscale materials for medical imaging and therapeutics.

“Let’s talk a little bit about the properties of gold,” Odom told a packed audience. “Gold was first reported to be smelted and processed by the Egyptians around 3600 B.C.” Her presentation slide showed an image of ancient Egyptians making art with gold.

The next image was of the famous Roman Lycurgus cup, which changes color when light interacts with gold and silver nanoparticles embedded in the glass, illustrating how the nanoparticles respond to light.

Today, we see example uses of nanoscale gold in lateral flow assays, such as home pregnancy and COVID-19 tests. Odom explained, “The red lines are composed of gold nanoparticles that bind to targets that you may or may not want.”

Whether for art or function — or both — the metal has long been known for its robustness and special qualities.

My premise [for my research] is that nanostructured gold can address fundamental problems not only based on its material properties, but also that gold becomes more special in nanoscale form.

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Teri Odom, Joan Husting Madden and William H. Madden, Jr. Professor of Chemistry 

During her talk, Odom described the two main arms of her research. Moving on from the Lycurgus cup into the 21st century, she discussed how she uses nanostructured gold to control light-matter interactions in super-tiny, confined spaces on the molecular scale. This involves designing nanoscale cavities that can manipulate properties of light and enhance optical applications, such as the realization of new classes of nanoscale lasers based on quantum emitters that are extremely energy-efficient. 

Her second research arm focuses on how nanostructured gold can be used to probe and manipulate biological processes in real time. First, she developed anisotropic nanoscale probes whose physical properties change depending on orientation. These probes can accurately report on nanoparticle-cell interactions and be used in new types of biological assays for understanding cellular processes and dynamics. In the future, these capabilities could help assess drug effectiveness, detect diseases, and deliver medicine to specific parts of the body.

The John Gamble Kirkwood Award was established in 1962 by former Sterling Professor of Chemistry and Department Chair John Gamble Kirkwood. The Kirkwood award winners are all eminent scientists. Of the 28 winners, thirteen have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.