W. M. Keck Institute for Attofluidic

Nanotube-Based Probes

Project Abstract

The project objective is to develop probes based on engineered carbon nanotubes capable of metering and transferring fluids with volumes of approximately one attoliter (10-18 liter), while performing electrical, optical and mechanical measurements of the probe environment. Such tiny and versatile tools will create opportunities in areas such as minimally invasive intra-cellular probing and drug delivery, single-cell surgery, molecular scale manufacturing, and environmental sensing. The Drexel University has assembled a dynamic team of researchers, including those who were the first to study fundamentals of fluid behavior in individual nanotubes. The proposed project will leverage the researchers' experience to build carbon nanotube-tipped pipettes capable of controlled transfer of attoliter fluid volumes. The proposed devices feature controlled surface functionality of carbon nanotubes, magnetic properties permitting remote manipulation and control, and embedded nanoparticles for sensing and imaging. Success of this work may lead to breakthroughs in the development and application of subcellular tools that can be used to directly detect and treat disease, such as cancer, at the cellular level, and to dramatic improvement of our ability to detect toxins in air and water at the single molecule level, identifying possible biological attack and other threats.

 News and Media Coverage

News

1. Since the receipt of the Keck Award in June, 2007, the faculty team has primarily focused on initiating the research, hiring students/post-docs as well as building the facilities.

New members of the Medical School faculty team:
In addition to Dr. Jane Clifford and Dr. Elizabeth Papazaglou , Dr. Michael Bouchard an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Dr. Zulfiya Orynbayeva, a new post-doc hire, have started a project designed to develop a "molecular footprint" of the cell using Raman spectroscopy. Data acquired using defined biochemical fractions will be used to validate localization of carbon nanotubes within the cell, an essential first step in the process of tracking signal transduction which is the long term goal of the project.

2. Announcements about the Keck Institute were published by all Drexel news outlets.

The latest one was a full-page article with a nice illustration in DUCoM Newspager. There were article in DrexeLink, CoE Dragon and other newsletters, mostly on the front page, and online articles. Pennsylvania news media covered our Keck Institute too, including the flagship newspaper Philadelphia Inquirer.

First articles acknowledging Keck support are going to press.

3. Seminars and presentations which Keck Award was announced:

Dr. Yury Gogotsi:
(a) delivered an invited seminar on "Liquids confined in carbon nanotube channels: from demonstration to device applications" at the Toulouse Nanotube Research Group Meeting, CEMES CNRS, France, Nov. 28, 2007.

(b) Have been invited to present an invited lecture on "Carbon Nanotube Tipped Cellular Probes" for the Electrochemical Society meeting in Phoenix, AZ, in May 2008.

Dr. Bradley Layton:
(a) "Collagen Evolution in the Cyanobacterium Trichodesmium erythraeum," Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Invited by Ann Darrin, November, 2007.
(b) "Bionanotechnology and MechanoEvolution," Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory Colloquium. Invited by Ann Darrin and David Silver, November, 2007.
(c) "Mechanics of Protein Evolution: Collagen and Tubulin" October, 2007. Carnegie Mellon University. Invited by Phil LeDuc.
(d) "Mechanics of Protein Evolution: Collagen and Tubulin" September, 2007. University of Colorado, Boulder. Invited by Jerry Qi.

4. An acknowledgment plaque was designed and placed in the Edmund D. Bossone Research Enterprise Center.

 Media Coverage

The establishment of the Keck Institute for Attofluidic Probes at Drexel University, Philadelphia, has received considerable media attention, within the University, in the Philadelphia region, and in the bio-nanotechnology community.

Internally, the Keck Institute was featured in several print publications:
• the Fall 2007 issue of DragoNotes, a newsletter for students, parents, and friends of the College of Engineering
• the Summer/Fall 2007 issue of The Drexel Engineer, a newsletter for alumni and friends of the College of Engineering
• the December 2007/January 2008 issue of NewsPager, the newsletter of the College of Medicine
• the September 2007 issue of Drexelink, a newsletter for the entire Drexel University community

Regionally, the Keck Institute was featured in the Philadelphia Business Journal on August 24, 2007; and in the August 2007 issue of Pennsylvania Bio Watch, the monthly e-newsletter of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association.

In the nanotechnology community, the Keck Institute appeared the Business Briefs section of nanotechweb.org on August 17, 2007 (http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/30846).
Related work was featured in the inaugural issue of Nano Affairs, the official newsletter of the Society of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, in April of 2007. The story also appeared in the January 2008 newsletter of the US Alumni association of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Yury Gogotsi, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Director of the A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute, and PI of the Keck Institute for Attofluidic Probes, was a 1992-93 JSPS Fellow.

Gogotsi collaborates with Drs. Jane Clifford (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), Gary Friedman (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Bradley Layton (Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics), and Elizabeth Papazoglou (Biomedical Engineering) on the Keck Institute project, the goal of which is to design and build nanotube-tipped probes that are capable of interrogating single organelles inside living cells.