Workshop On: Micro/Nanoelectronics: Devices and Technologies for Biomedical Applications. The Workshop will be held at IMEC in Leuven, Belgium from September 25-26, 2008.

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AbstractObjective This objective of this proposal is to request funding to support a workshop aimed at speeding the development of micro/nanoelectronic devices for improved healthcare. The workshop will be held at the Interdisciplinary Microelectronics Center (IMEC) in Leuven, Belgium on September 25-26, 2008. The workshop will bring together leading researchers from the microsystem and nanobiotechnology communities to identify grand challenges, promote collaborations, and recommend research needed to speed the use of these technologies in biology and biomedicine. This workshop will bring together scientists and engineers from micr/nano communities and biology and biomedicine and will try to identify devices and systems that could be used for in-vivo and in-vitro applications. The two disciplines seem destined to meet at cellular dimensions, and this workshop seeks to bridge the gap between them.Intellectual Merit:After nearly four decades, many of the microelectronic technologies needed for health care are now emerging. Sophisticated signal processing tasks involving millions of transistors can be performed on a single chip at microwatt levels. Wireless technology has created global communication networks and is being reduced to single chips capable of working in-vivo. MEMS-based sensors now exist for many physiological parameters, and hermetic wafer-level packaging techniques suitable for use in implants are emerging. Structures based on nanotechnology are being combined with microfluidics and being developed to analyze DNA and screen for proteomic biomarkers of Alzheimer?s disease, heart disease, and cancer. But many challenges remain. Improved power sources are needed, some perhaps based on energy scavenging, and the critical interface between the biological environment and physical monitoring devices must be much better understood. True advances in health care will likely require the integration of both. Broader impact:Health care is one of the most important problems confronting the 21st century. In 2000, life expectancies ranged from 35 years in Sierra Leone to 77 in the U.S. and 83 in Japan, and in U.S. the cost of health care represented 13% of GDP. About 630 million people worldwide were over the age of 60, but by 2050 this number will increase to over two billion, an increase of 330%. Clearly something must be done to avoid catastrophic health care cost. Diagnostic devices based on cellular/molecular analysis and implantable microsystems for treating many of our most serious chronic disorders are among the most promising approaches for meeting these challenges.