Research in the O’Reilly Group is motivated by a belief that precision in chemical synthesis is key to unlocking materials with advanced properties. At the level of individual molecules, we develop new fluorescent probes that sense and respond to their environment, which in turn are used to investigate fundamental self-assembly behavior at the nanoscale, and for unique applications such as cellular ‘barcoding’. Our work in the area of DNA-templated synthesis seeks to control chemical reactivity by exploiting the programmability of nucleic acid interactions, and could lead to new methods for the synthesis of sequence-defined polymers that match and extend the properties of natural enzymes. The advances we are making in the precision synthesis of nanoparticles with controlled shapes and functionality underpin a huge range of potential applications, ranging from nanomedicine to catalysis, and rely on an excellent understanding of the underlying polymer chemistry. The group is highly multidisciplinary, working at the interface between organic chemistry, materials science, applied physics and biology.