I don't know much in terms of blockchain _research_, but reading the whitepapers of established cryptocurrencies will give you a great overview & keywords to research further.
- Bitcoin[0] (the classic!)
- Ethereum[1] (contracts is a really innovative concept)
- Iota[2] (uses a 'tangle', rather than a blockchain)
- Nano[3] (similar to Iota, but faster? Everyone gets their own personal blockchain -> asynchronous updates! Gets faster with more users)
[0]https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
[1]https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paper
[2]http://iotatoken.com/IOTA_Whitepaper.pdf
[3]https://nano.org/en/whitepaper