Plaxco's research group aims to harness the speed and specificity of biopolymer folding as a signal transduction mechanism in a novel and highly general class of real-time, real-world optical and electronic biosensors. He is also exploring the potential to exploit the extraordinary cooperativity of folding to create adaptive, responsive surfaces, and materials. His basic research is in the development and testing of a quantitative, first principles theory of the mechanism by which proteins fold. His related theoretical and experimental work includes intensive studies of the structures and dynamics of the unfolded state and the colective dynamics of the native state.