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Nature exhibits diverse and adaptive functions through self-assembly across molecular, nano-, and microscale dimensions.
Yet how they emerge from three-dimensional architectures and local chemistry remains poorly understood.
I will present recent work integrating high-resolution 3D FIB/SEM reconstruction, X-ray ptychography, Hypulse XPS profiling, and multimodal spectroscopy to investigate complex biological materials.
These approaches enable simultaneous visualization of structure and composition across scales, revealing previously hidden correlations between chemical organization, material architecture, and their physical relevance.
By linking composition to architecture, these studies uncover previously hidden pathways of biological material formation and reveal how distinct building blocks can converge toward similar functional outcomes.
More broadly, this work highlights how integrating chemistry into three-dimensional structural analysis opens new opportunities for understanding biological matter from a physical perspective.