The research effort of my group includes a wide range of materials and devices in the area of nano-bio-systems. Much of our expertise is concentrated at the supramolecular assembly of man-made artificial nanostructures and their unique interactions with biological entities (such as proteins, DNA and biocompatible polymers). These endeavors span into the following areas- |
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SINGLE WALL CARBON NANOTUBES (SWNTs): The metallic (met-) vs. semiconducting (sem-) nature of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) has attracted considerable attention from the scientific community. Our group was the first to report and explain how separation and enrichment of SWNTs can take place according to type (metallic vs. semiconducting) and diameter (JACS, 2003, 125, 3370). More recently our group has published how to separate a single chirality sem-SWNT (i.e (8,6)) out of a mixture of more than 50 (Nature Nanotech., 2008, 3, 356). Separated SWNTs are poised to enhance considerably the properties of nanostructured devices. Our group is currently aiming to separate all the different (n,m) chiralities nanotubes and use them as well as provide them to other researchers towards the construction of advanced optoelectronic and electro-optic devices. |
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CARBON NANOTUBE BIO-ELECTRONICS: Building on our initial finding of self-assembled SWNT forest arrays (JACS, 2001, 123, 9451), our group in conjunction with Prof. Rusling’s group has been able to electrically interface carbon nanotubes with redox enzymes (Electr. Comm., 2003, 5, 408-411) and produce highly sensitive electrochemical immunosensors (JACS, 2006, 128, 11199) with 100 ag sensitivity. With the recent addition of the NANOBIONICS DEVICE FABRICATION FACILITY within IMS, our group is currently interfacing these immunosensors within microfluidics devices. |
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TOTALLY IMPLANTABLE WIRELESS GLUCOSE SENSORS: Real time monitoring of various metabolic analytes that control function and physiology of the human body is crucially needed for a variety of applications and especially for diabetic patients in everyday life. Our group, in collaboration with the groups of Professors Burgess and Jain, has been developing wireless, totally implantable glucose sensors that exhibit significant size reduction, increased bio-acceptability and suppression of inflammation (J. Contr. Release, 2007, 117, 68). Significant effort is exerted to identify the various failure mechanisms and improve upon both sin-vitro and in-vivo device stability (J. Diabetes Sci. & Tech., 2007, 1(2), 193). |
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SEMICONDUCTOR NANOCRYSTALS (NCS): CdSe NCs are important luminescent markers for a variety of biological application. Our group has been developing selective growth and faceting methodologies for CdSe NCs (JACS, 2005, 127, 2524 & 2006, 128, 6280) as well as using them for tracking DNA transcription efficiencies for in vitro and in vivo applications (in collaboration with Prof. Burgess and Silbart) (Molecular Therapy, 2006, 14(2) 192) |
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