Oct 25 2008
The University of Connecticut has opened a nanobionics "clean room" that will allow university scientists to make cutting-edge devices, such as a tiny, implantable glucose sensor that could help more than 20 million people with diabetes.
The facility is essentially a laboratory with thick, yellow, plexiglass walls dividing it into a dry and a wet side. The room provides a dust-free environment for scientists in white, Gore-tex suits to make nano-sized devices for use in defense and other industries and medicine.
"Nano" means one billionth part of a specified unit. A nanometer, for example, is one billionth of a meter. In nanobionics, scientists make tiny circuits and outfit them with biological features, said chemistry Professor Fotios Papadimitrakopoulos, director of Nanobionics Fabrication Facility.
For example, UConn scientists are working on a device that could help doctors diagnose prostate cancer within 10 minutes, he said. They are also trying to develop an artificial retina that could restore vision for people who have lost it.
"We are very happy to have this facility because it will give us basically a new direction to expand our research in the nanobionics arena and make devices that will impact peoples' quality of life," Papadimitrakopoulos said.
The $2 million room in the Gant Science Complex also will give UConn undergraduates a chance to do research in the field and train graduate students in nanotechnology skills crucial for the state's work force competitiveness. The state is seeing a decline in high-tech companies, and officials say they hope nanotechnology will inject new life in Connecticut's economic future.
The room, which was partly financed through a U.S. Army Center grant, will supplement the more than $20 million in research technology at UConn's Institute of Materials Science. These include high-power electron microscopes, atomic force microscopes and luminescence and Raman spectrometers.
UConn has invested more than $7 million in nanotechnology research facilities and faculty as part of its revised academic plan. Nearly 80 faculty members, including faculty at the UConn Health Center, are actively engaged in nanotechnology research.