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Michael L. Roukes
Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Bioengineering
California Institute of Technology

Talk Title: Future Nanosystems: Towards Systems Biology of the Individual Cell

Abstract
Nanoscience now enables creation of ultrasmall electronic devices that offer unprecedented opportunities for sensing. Transitioning these devices from the realm of one-of-a-kind “feats” into robust, reproducible nanosystems useful for medical and biological research is a monumental challenge. Only the very first steps have been taken towards this end, even though such efforts are absolutely crucial for realizing the promise of “active” nanotechnology. At least two essential elements must be in place to realize the vast applications potential that awaits. First, an unfamiliar fusion of technologies is required, one that melds techniques from surface biochemistry and microfluidics with sensor technologies from nanoelectronics, nanomechanics, and nanophotonics. Second, robust methods for large-scale nanobiotechnological integration are required, and these must engender identifiable routes to production en masse. This disciplined assemblage of disparate technologies is crucial, whether for fundmental discovery work in medicine and the life sciences, or for the development of future clinical products. The requisite methodology is probably more familiar to the commercial sector than to academia.

Despite impressive recent achievements in what I term “unit” nanoscience (which focuses upon individual phenomena and novel structures), nature's systems-nanotechnology still far outstrips what is engineerable today. For example, the mammalian acquired immune response represents a profoundly adaptive system that provides essentially single-molecule sensitivity to pathogens. In this light, harnessing cellular systems within hybrid devices appears to have immense potential for early disease detection, drug discovery, and fundamental medical and biological research. Today’s micro- and nanoscale technologies can provide the requisite tools for such applications. We are managing some awkward first steps toward these ends, embedding nanoscale biosensor arrays into microfluidic systems to form chip-based electronic “laboratories” for cell biology.

When fully realized, this approach will permit simultaneous observation and control of multiple intra- and inter-cellular interactions. This, in turn, will reverse-engineering of biochemical networks through the techniques of systems biology, but at the level of the individual cell. There is an inevitability about such pursuits; they are increasingly being carried out by laboratories worldwide. Ultimately, active nanobiotechnology will enable a detailed real-time window into the complexity of cellular processes.

Biographical Sketch
MICHAEL L. ROUKES is Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Bioengineering, and is the Director of Caltech’s Laboratory for Large-Scale Integration of Nanostructures (LSI Nano). Roukes was founding Director Caltech’s Kavli Nanoscience Institute (KNI) until this year, having recently returned to full-time nanoscience research.

Prof. Roukes received a Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University in 1985, for research focusing upon electron transport in microstructures at ultralow temperatures under Nobel Laureate Robert C. Richardson. He then joined Bell Communications Research, as a Member of Technical Staff / Principal Investigator in the Quantum Structures Research Group where he carried out a series of pioneering experiments on the physics of ultrasmall semiconductor systems. In 1992 he became a tenured faculty member at Caltech where he has built nanofabrication facilities and established a large nanoscience research group that is now heavily involved in cross-disciplinary collaborations.

Roukes’ scientific interests range from fundamental and applied condensed matter physics to electrical engineering and biophysics – with a unifying theme centered upon development, application, and large-scale-integration of complex nanostructures. He has published and written extensively on nanoscience, and has lectured at most major research centers world-wide. With his group over the past two decades he has made a number of first discoveries and observations of fundamental physical phenomena at the micro- and nanoscale.

Among his other professional activities, at Caltech he was co-founder and co-director of the Initiative in Computational Molecular Biology (CMB), and of Caltech’s Nanoscale Systems Initiative (NSI), which has been funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. His external activities include service on the advisory boards of a number of nanoscience centers and institutes worldwide, and have included organization of numerous national panels on nanotechnology. Since 1999 has organized and chaired six nanoscience conferences. Among his honors, Roukes is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and was recently chosen as a Gilbreth Lecturer to the National Academy of Engineering.

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