NEWS
Innovation Grants Program (NBIC), 2008
Dawn Bonnell, Director of the Nano/Bio Interface Center announces the fourth round of Innovation Grants awarded by the NBIC. The Innovation Grants constitute a competitive program to support new topics of inquiry in the field of nanoscience and engineering. Four new awards were made in the second round. Read about each by clicking the links below.
Cherie R. Kagan, Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering
So-Jung Park, Department of Chemistry
Marija Drndic, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Jorge J. Santiago-Avilés, Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering
Yoko Yamakoshi, Department of Radiology
Prashant K. Purohit, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics
Marija Drndić Recieves the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Award
Dr. Marija Drndić, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, is this year’s recipient of the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Award for her distinguished teaching of introductory quantum mechanics and electromagnetism for engineering students as well as the advanced quantum mechanics. “She is a brilliant communicator”, and “her class is always full of energy” are remarks from one of her students.
http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/volumes/v54/n30/pdf_n30/042208.pdf
http://www.college.upenn.edu/honors/teaching/descriptions.php
Gigantic fuss over a teensy topic
Nanotechnology is the focus of attention at a Penn science fair.
By Dan Hardy Inquirer Staff Writer
Until 25 years ago, when a new kind of microscope allowed scientists to see molecule-size objects more clearly, nanotechnology - which deals with particles a billionth of a meter or smaller - was more the stuff of science fiction than of science.
Recent Grant Funding to NBIC Associate Director, Yale Goldman
1. NIST Award of $2 Million to Develop a Tool to Study Proteins At Work in Living Cells
Yale Goldman and his associate, Barry Cooperman of Penn’s Muscle Institute and Chemistry Department, were awarded a grant from the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The grant is for $1.9 million and is funded under the agency’s Advanced Technology Program (ATP). The goals of this grant are to develop technologies for identifying proteins from live cells in real-time, to be used in basic science research, drug development, and the search for novel medical treatments. The corporate partner for this project is Anima Cell Metrology, Inc. of Basking Ridge, NJ.
2. NSF Award of $700,000 from the Major Research Instrumentation Program
Development of Simultaneous Single Molecule Fluorescence and Atomic Force Microscopy. This award supports the development of a new instrument capable of single-molecule fluorescence measurements of angular (polarization), translational, and conformational motions collected during Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) imaging and manipulation of individual biomolecules and their complexes. AFM is the only technique that can image wet, native samples with nanometer resolution, and it has also emerged as a key technology for manipulation-type studies of single molecules and complexes, including protein and RNA folding-unfolding under tension, and studies of enzyme activity under compressive confinement. The goal of this award is to design and develop a new instrument that will report the internal structural changes of single macromolecules and surface layers by single molecule fluorescence microscopy, simultaneous with application and detection of relevant mechanical forces and distances by AFM. The long-term objective for this new microscope is to increase fundamental understanding of assembly, folding and function of macromolecules and surface layers.
Jonathan Spanier awarded with PECASE
Jonathan E. Spanier, NBIC researcher and Assistant Professor of materials science and engineering in the College of Engineering at Drexel University, was recently honored at a White House ceremony with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The PECASE is the nation’s highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. Spanier is the first assistant professor at Drexel to be selected for this recognition since the program was created. The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, established in 1996, honors the most promising researchers in the Nation within their fields.
His research group website can be accessed at « http://www.mse.drexel.edu/mml/ »
NBIC Associate Director Yale Goldman Named 2007 AAAS Fellow
Yale E. Goldman, MD, PhD, Director, Pennsylvania Muscle Institute and Professor of Physiology is among the newest Fellows to be named to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Goldman was cited for his distinguished contributions in molecular motor research, development of new technologies for biophysics, and service in scientific societies, journal editing, and organization of scientific meetings. The new Fellows will be officially inducted February 16 during the 2008 AAAS annual meeting in Boston.
NBIC Bioengineering Professor Awarded the School's Highest Teaching Honor
Dr. John C. Schotland, associate professor of bioengineering and electrical and systems engineering, was awarded the School’s highest teaching honor, the S. Reid Warren, Jr. Award. The award is presented annually by the undergraduate student body and the Engineering Alumni Society in recognition of outstanding service in stimulating and guiding the intellectual and professional development of undergraduate students in SEAS. Dr. Schotland received both his M.D. and Ph.D. from Penn and joined the faculty of Penn Engineering in 2002. He is a member of the Nano/Bio Interface Center and the Institute for Medicine and Engineering. A student writes, "Dr. Schotland challenges students to re-open math and physics textbooks to review everything from Bessel functions to multi-dimensional Fourier transforms." Another student notes that "outside of class, Professor Schotland devotes countless hours advising students on graduate school. With both an M.D. and a Ph.D., Professor Schotland is equipped to openly discuss each program, thereby helping students to decide which track best fits their personalities and career goals."
from the Almanac, vol 53, No.3, May 8, 2007
For more information about Dr. Shotland's research visit:
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/be/dir/details/John_Schotland_details.html
Industry Partnership
Podcast and video streaming available
On February 23, 2007, a distinguished panel of university and industry leaders assembled at the University of Pennsylvania’s Nano/Bio Interface Center to discuss exciting opportunities and complex challenges around university/industry partnerships. Corporate representatives came from DuPont, IBM, and Johnson and Johnson as well as Sandia National Laboratory. Christoph Gerber of the University of Basel in Switzerland presented his view of the future of nanotechnology and opportunities these kinds of collaboration will afford. The discussion among the panelists centered on nanotechnology, biotechnology, computation, and information technology.
Listen to the podcast or watch streaming video of the event at
http://www.nanotech.upenn.edu/events.html#industry_highlight_07
Bioethics and Nanotechnology
New resources this spring
Several new podcasts have been added to the growing list of resources from Science and Society. The following are of particular interest in the nanobiotechnology area.
Dr. Buddy Ratner, Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board, Ratner BioMedical Group, and Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington discusses his research interests in nanobiotechnology in a program entitled, “Engineered Cardiac Morphogenesis.”
Richard Garozzo, Senior Composites Engineer in the Polymer Nanocomposites and Composites Group, University of Dayton Research Institute, and Manager, UDRI’s Center for Multifunctional Polymer Nanocomposites and Devices. discusses the world’s first manufacturing center for product demonstration of nano-enhanced polymer composites.
http://www.bioethics.upenn.edu/nanotech/nanocasts/nanocasts.html
Nader Engheta named as “2006 Scientific American 50”
Nader Engheta is the H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering and professor of bioengineering in Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. He was recently honored by Scientific American magazine as one of the “2006 Scientific American 50.”
Read more about this at http://www.seas.upenn.edu/whatsnew/2006/nader_engheta.html
Engheta is also a faculty advisor the NBIC’s Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT). This research has focused on the development electric tweezers and the positioning and orientation objects at the nanometer scale.
DNA shown to very flexible at the nanoscale
Scientists have answered a long-standing molecular stumper regarding DNA: how can parts of such a rigid molecule bend and coil without requiring large amounts of force? According to a team of researchers from the United States and the Netherlands, led by a physicist from the University of Pennsylvania, DNA is much more flexible than previously believed when examined over extremely small lengths. They used a technique called atomic force microscopy to determine the amount of energy necessary to bend DNA over nano-size lengths (about a million times smaller than a printed letter). The findings, which appear in the November issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, illustrate how molecular properties often appear different when viewed at different degrees of magnification.
"DNA is not a passive molecule. It constantly needs to bend, forming loops and kinks, as other molecules interact with it,” said Philip Nelson, a professor in Penn’s Department of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences. "But when people looked at long chunks of DNA, it always seemed to behave like a stiff elastic rod.”
For example, DNA must wrap itself around proteins, forming tiny molecular structures called nucleosomes, which help regulate how genes are read. The formation of tight DNA loops also plays a key role in switching some genes off. According to Nelson, such processes were considered a minor mystery of nature, in part because researchers didn’t have the tools of nanotechnology to examine molecules in such fine detail.
"Common sense and physics seemed to tell us that DNA just shouldn’t spontaneously bend into such tight structures, yet it does,” Nelson said. "In the conventional view of DNA molecule, wrapping DNA into a nucleosome would be like bending a yardstick around a baseball.” To study DNA on the needed short length scales, Nelson and his colleagues used a technique called high-resolution atomic force microscopy to obtain a direct measurement of the energy it would take to bend lengths of DNA just a few nanometers long. The technique involves dragging an extremely sharp tip across the contours of the molecule in order to create a picture of its structure.
With this tool, Nelson and his colleagues measured the energies required to make various bends in DNA at lengths of five to fifty nanometers---about a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a typical human cell.
"We found that DNA has different apparent properties when probed at short lengths than the entire molecule does when taken as a whole,” Nelson said. "Its resistance to large-angle bends at this scale is much smaller than previously suspected.”
Nelson is also a member of Penn’s Nano--Bio Interface Center, which explores how the fields of nanotechnology, biology and medicine all intersect. "The nanoscale just happens to also be the scale at which cell biology operates,” Nelson said. ``We’re entering an era when we are able to use the tools of nanotechnology to answer fundamental puzzles of biology.”
Nelson’s collaborators include Paul A. Wiggins from the Whitehead Institute at MIT, Rob Phillips from Caltech, Jonathan Widom from Northwestern University and Thijn van der Heijden, Fernando Moreno--Herrero and Cees Dekker from Delft University.
written by Greg Lester, University Communications
Innovation Grants Program (NBIC)
Dawn Bonnell, Director of the Nano/Bio Interface Center announces the second round of Innovation Grants awarded by the NBIC. The Innovation Grants constitute a competitive program to support new topics of inquiry in the field of nanoscience and engineering. Four new awards were made in the second round. Read about each by clicking the links below.
Ritesh Agarwal, Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Christopher S.Chen, Associate Professor, Bioengineering
So-Jung Park, Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Gianluca Piazza, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Systems Engineering
Nanotech Research at Penn Tops the List
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The May/June 2006 issue of Small Times magazine ranks the University of Pennsylvania #1 in research in nanotechnology. This is a result of an integrated initiative across the campus of numerous centers, laboratories, and collaborations. These include the Nano/Bio Interface Center, the Nanotechnology Institute, and the Penn Regional Nanotechnology Facility to name a few. The article also ranks other aspects like education, facilities, and industrial outreach. On the Education list, Penn ranks 5th and on the Commercialization list it ranks 10th.
Small Times magazine details technological advances, applications and investment opportunities to help business leaders stay informed about the rapidly changing business of micro and nanotechnology from biotech to defense, telecom to transportation. Small Times spotlights key issues in the industry's development, along with market intelligence, company profiles and more. (6/06)
<< Click to read article "Top 10 universities by category" >>
<< Click to read article "A complete list of universities who participated" >>
Lukes Receives NSF CAREER Grant
Jennifer R. Lukes, William K. Gemmill Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER grant for her work in modeling thermal energy transport in nanostructures. The NSF CAREER program provides support of the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization.
This photo shows the modulated laser thermoreflectance setup Dr. Lukes is using to perform thermal conductivity measurements related to this research.
[posted 1.12.06]
Yale Goldman honored.
Yale Goldman, M.D., Ph.D. and Associate Director of the NBIC is the tenth recipient of the Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award. The award will be presented to Dr. Goldman by Dean of the School of Medicine , Arthur H. Rubenstein on November 30, 2005.
[posted 11.9.05]
Two NBIC Researchers: AAAS Fellows
Dawn Bonnell, Director of the NBIC and Professor of Material Science and Engineering and Michael Therien, Professor of Chemistry were both named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The announcement appeared in Science on October 28 th 2005.
[posted 11.9.05]
NanoDay@Penn / October 26, 2005
The Nano/Bio Interface Center of the University of Pennsylvania sponsored a day of education and outreach programs for the Penn community as well as regional high schools and neighbors. Activities included exhibits and demonstrations, laboratory tours, a graduate student research poster session, and high school research projects/science fair. The day culminateds with a NBIC awards program and keynote speech by Horst Stormer, Professor of Physics at Columbia University, and 1998 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics. Professor Stormer was presented with the NBIC Research Excellence Award.
[posted 11.9.05]
Penn tries to dispel myths about nanotechnology
Thursday, October 20, 2005
By EILEEN STILWELL
Courier-Post Staff
PHILADELPHIAThe University of Pennsylvania aims to be on the cutting edge of nanotechnology, a far-reaching science with endless applications; but it also wants to head off the kind of backlash that has hampered progress in other hot-button topics like stem-cell research and genetically engineered foods ...
Read full Courier Post article >>
download PDF version >>[posted 11.9.05]
NBIC Physics Researcher awarded with PECASE
Dr. Marija Drndic, an assistant professor of physics is among 58 of the nation's most promising young scientists and engineers. The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) honors the most promising researchers in their field. Drndic was nominated for her contributions to understanding the physics and applications of nanoscale electronic devices and materials. Earlier this year, she was awarded a grant through NBIC in the Innovations Grant Program. Her research website is located at: www.physics.upenn.edu/~drndic/group/index.html
Small Technology, Big Promise
Penn researchers are helping write the rulebook for the future of nanotechnology.
By Samuel K. Moore
The Pennsylvania Gazette, May/June, 2005 Read full article >>
Tiny, on a grand scale
Nanotechnology's next big challenge: Making and manufacturing minuscule machines. Penn's Dawn Bonnell is leading the way.
By Peter Mucha
Inquirer Staff WriterThe Philadelphia Inquirer, posted April 25, 2005 Read full article >>
Innovation Grants Program 2005 (NBIC)
Dawn Bonnell, Director of the Penn Nano/Bio Interface Center announced on Friday, February 4, 2005, the first round of Innovation Grants awarded by the NBIC. The Innovation Grants constitute a competitive program to support new topics of inquiry in the field of Nanoscience and Engineering. Four awards were made in the first round. Read about each by clicking the links below.
Jennifer Lukes, MEAM, Penn
Marija Drndic, Physics, Penn
Jorge Santiago, ESE, Penn
Jon Spanier, MSE, Drexel University
Small Times® Magazine
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Small Times magazine is a bimonthly business publication focused on the applications, advancements and investment opportunities in micro and nanotechnology. Two recent issues (Nov/Dec 2004 and Jan/Feb 2005) included special advertising sections featuring the Pennsylvania Initiative for Nanotechnology (PIN). The NSF grant to Penn that initiated the Nano/Bio Interface Center is described in the 2005 publication. Select each link to view (in PDF) each special insert. (1/05)
Article on Delawareonline.com
By IN-SUNG YOO / The News Journal 12.14.2004
Chances are, you've heard the term nanotechnology being thrown around as "the next big thing" in science and technology. Chances are also good that you still have no idea what it is.
So why is it such a big deal, and when will we see it?
The Nano/Bio Interface Center is Officially Up and Running
The Nano/Bio Interface Center was officially inaugurated on 23 November 2004 at a reception attended by University President Amy Gutmann and Eduardo Glandt, Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Secretary of Community and Economic Development, Dennis Yablonsky lent his support and that of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The University of Pennsylvania received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a new Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC). Penn’s Nano/Bio Interface Center will be housed in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and will bring together researchers from across campus (Engineering, Arts and Sciences, and Medicine) to study the intersection of technology and biology at the nanometer length scale. The Center’s research program is structured around two major themes: biomolecular function and molecular motion.
The establishment of the Nano/Bio Interface Center recognizes Penn’s leadership role in the application of the physical sciences to biomedicine. It will nucleate a large number of research programs at the Penn campus and in the region while capitalizing on intellectual property. The Center will eventually be housed in the planned Nanotechnology Gateway Laboratory. The Principal Investigator and Director of the Center is Dawn Bonnell, Trustee Term Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn. The Associate Director is Yale Goldman, Director of the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute at Penn.
more pictures of this event >>
New logo adopted by Center
At the inaugural reception for the Nano/Bio Interface Center, Center director Dawn Bonnell announced the winning entry from a campus-wide logo contest. With 20 entries to select from, the winning design came from brothers William and Joseph Ho. Their proposal was all the more impressive in that several variations and alternatives were presented for consideration.
The brothers spent time reviewing the issues and concerns surrounding the disciplines of nanotechnology before setting to work. The winning design “represents a field of molecules that are manipulated to form the initials of the Center, while the results and ethics that affect society are represented by the figure,” according to the proposal. William Ho is a graduate student in the School of Arts and Sciences.
 Dean Eduardo Glandt with President Amy Gutmann and Professor Dawn Bonnell celebrating the new Nano-Bio Interface Center |
Penn Receives $11.4 Million to Open Center to Explore the Boundaries Between Nanotechnology and Biology
Dean Eduardo Glandt with President Amy Gutmann and Professor Dawn Bonnell celebrating the new Nano-Bio Interface Center
PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania is one of six institutions to receive funding today from the National Science Foundation for a new Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center. As part of the NSEC program, Penn's new Nano/Bio Interface Center will bring together researchers from across campus to study the intersection of technology and biology at the nanoscale -- or molecular -- level.
Penn granted $11.4M
Region's nanotech push boosted with national funding
By Peter KeyPhiladelphia Business Journal
The University of Pennsylvania has landed a five-year, $11.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish a center that will study the intersection of biological and physical systems at the molecular level.