Physics Department
The
COLLOQUIUM
Candidate for Assistant Professor of Physics in Nano-Bio
Physics
___________________________________
Nanoarchitectures for Biomolecule Analysis
Dr. Qi-Huo Wei
Staff Scientist
Center for Applied NanoBioscience
Biodesign Institute at
Monday, February 27, 2006
4:00 p.m.
Room 103 SH
Abstract
This talk will focus on some of our
recent efforts on understanding and developing nanofluidic
and nanophotonic architectures for biomolecule manipulation and detection with one ambitious
target at integrated nanobiosystems for
proteomic/genomic applications. (1) Efficient protein enrichments are critical
to proteomic analysis since proteins of interests as drug targets and
biomarkers are low abundant in cell extracts and body fluids. This talk will
show how this problem can be tackled by using unique properties of nanofluidics and the set of micro/nanofabrication processed
that we developed for making nanofluidic devices with
features down to 10nm and with macro-micro-nano
interfaces. Results on trapping/concentration of streptavidin
in these nanofluidic devices through dielectrophoresis will be presented. An example
(single-file diffusion) will be also given to show that how physical behaviors
of molecules/particles could be distinctively different in confined micro/nanoenvironments. (2) The excitation of surface plasmons at metal/dielectric interfaces and in nano metal particles leads to many orders of magnitude
enhancements of both local electromagnetic fields and Raman signals of
molecules close to metal surfaces. Progresses of our recent thrusts on
understanding near-field coupling between 1D plasmonic
nanoparticles and on a new type of nanoparticles with tunable and augmented optical properties
will be presented, and their applications for biomolecule
detections (SERS, molecular rulers) will be discussed. Also shown will be our
recent development of surface plasmon interference
nanolithography (SPIN) technique which allows for nanopatterning
with normal UV exposure.
Refreshments will be served in the Physics Library at 3:30pm, Room 108
Science Hall.