Career: Silicon-Based Nano Structures and Bio-Sensors for the Nano-BioTechnology Era

随着人工计算系统的构建变得越来越困难，越来越多的工程师和科学家转向大自然寻求答案。现在时机已经成熟，我们可以开始更好地理解那些自我组装、感知和传递信息以及执行复杂计算任务的生物系统。这一领域的进一步发展需要跨学科的研究，将纳米电子工程和生物技术结合起来，开发功能设备和系统（即纳米生物系统）。该提案详细介绍了开发基于半导体的方法来实现分子水平上传感应用的新型纳米生物结构的计划。随着未来的混合生物系统开始接近现实，这些传感设备将是需要的。硅微机电系统（MEMS）将用于新兴纳米生物技术领域的发展，因为MEMS技术可以提供将电子世界与有机或生物世界连接起来的方法。拟议的研究和教育部分将在两个应用领域的背景下进行：(i)制造用于单分子电子和力检测的硅基功能化扫描探针显微镜悬臂和传感器，以及（ii）用于单分子传感和DNA/RNA测序等应用的硅基单分子计数器/传感器设备。这项工作的广泛研究和教育影响将是各种各样的想法和项目，这些想法和项目将有助于应用，如纳米级计算系统，功能成像，DNA和蛋白质测序，以及生物电子接口设备的开发，所有这些都在分子水平上。此外，我们也将讨论微电子和生物医学工程部门所面临的纳米生物技术领域未来研究人员和学者教育的巨大挑战。该提案详细说明了本科和研究生阶段的具体课程，并讨论了有助于培养学生并将研究和教育整合在提议的兴趣方向上的相关活动。

As the construction of artificial computational systems continues to become insurmountably difficult, more and more engineers and scientists are turningtowards nature for answers. The time is ripe to begin to better understand biological systems that are self-assembled, sense and relay information, and perform complex computational tasks. Further advances in this area require interdisciplinary researchintegrating nano-electronic engineering and biotechnology to develop functional devices and systems (i.e. nano-biosystems). This proposal details plans for developing semiconductor-based approaches to realize novel nano-biostructures for sensingapplications at the molecular level. These sensing devices will be needed as future hybrid bio-systems start to become closer to reality. Silicon Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) will be used in the developmentof the emerging nano-biotechnology area since MEMS techniques can provide ways tointerface the electronic world to the organic or biological world. The proposed research and education components will be carried out within the context of two application domains: (i) Fabrication of silicon-based functionalized scanning probe microscopycantilevers and sensors for single molecule electronic and force detection, and (ii) Silicon-based single molecule counter/sensor devices for applications such as single molecule sensing and DNA/RNA sequencing. The broad research and educational impact of the work willbe a variety of ideas and projects that will contribute to applications such as nano-scalecomputational systems, functional imaging, DNA and protein sequencing, and development of bio-electronic interface devices, all at the molecular level. Furthermore, the grand challenge of education of future researchers and academicians in the area ofnano-biotechnology, which is being faced by the microelectronics and biomedical engineeringdepartments, will also be discussed. The proposal details specific courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels and discusses related activities that will help train students and integrate research and education in the proposed directions of interest.