Program Manager: Dr. Cindy Daniell
The Engineered Bio-Molecular Nano-Devices/Systems (MOLDICE) Program has developed and demonstrated novel hybrid (biotic-abiotic) nanoscale interface technologies that enable direct, real-time conversion of bio-molecular signals into electrical signals. Biological systems exhibit remarkable sensitivity, selectivity, and efficiency that could be exploited in engineering systems should appropriate interfaces become available. Biological systems have well-defined sensing units, signal processing units, and actuation sub-systems that determine responses to specific stimuli. While significant effort has gone into understanding the sensing systems of biology (e.g., receptor and transmembrane proteins), the intra-cellular signal processing system is still the subject of many ongoing research efforts. The objective of this program is to develop hybrid bio-molecular devices/systems that use biological units (e.g., Protein Ion Channels/Nanopores, G-Protein Coupled Receptors, etc.) for performing the sensing function but use silicon circuitry to accomplish the signal processing. Innovative ideas will be explored for the development of interfaces (to ion channels and receptors) that enable the real-time (temporal) transduction of molecular (stochastic) events into electrical signals. A critical focus of this program is the exploitation of temporal (kinetic) information for the real-time analysis and detection of molecular targets.
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