Studying its surface chemistry and interfacial properties has led us to reveal the wetting transparency and hydrophilicity of free-standing graphene. These properties are instrumental in the interaction of graphene with biomolecules such as proteins and DNA. Our aim is to better understand the impact of water on the operation of graphene based sensors.
With this knowledge we aim to engineer heterostructures of graphene in combination with hydrogels, frozen solvents and lipids. These heterostructures aid us in the handling of graphene, which has already let us to develop an ultraclean graphene transfer method, using cyclohexane, resulting films of the highest quality, notably free of polymer residuals.  Moreover, we use these heterostructures to make the use of graphene compatible in the context of living cells, membrane proteins and other systems of biomedical interest.