Bionanotechnology Research Overview
Bionanotechnology holds exciting opportunities to bring high-impact advances in the field of bioengineering and medicine. Exquisite biological nanostructures are a natural means by which cells interact with one another and with the extracellular matrix. Bionanotechnology offers at the nanoscale (100,000 times smaller than the diameter of the average human hair) the ability to provide insight into the structural features of biological systems such as cell or tissue as well as to develop nanobiomaterials/ medical devices for diagnostics, therapeutics and tissue regeneration. Ongoing work includes development nanoprobes that can characterize the nanoscale structure and function of cells; design of multi-functional nanobiosystems for therapeutics, localized therapy delivery, and for functional tissue repair/regeneration; innovative techniques for chromosome sorting; development of technologies to characterize the physio-chemical, structural, and biological properties of nanostructured assemblies/ materials; design of artificial biomaterials through molecular synthesis and nanoscale self-assembly.
Faculty Research Interests
Frame, Molly
Associate Professor & Undergraduate Program Director
Mary.Frame@sunysb.edu
Summary : " Our emerging understanding of oxygen delivery to the tissues is that the blood flow within the smallest arterioles is tightly organized within repeating networks across the tissue. Central to this new paradigm are the concepts of vascular communication between the beginning and end of the network (via gap junctions), and its relation to flow sensing by the vascular endothelium. Our work has shown that different types of microvascular flow patterns can be triggered by direct stimulation of the focal adhesions (alpha-v-beta-3 integrins, i.e., wound healing), compared to adenosine (i.e., metabolic change), compared to nitric oxide (i.e., inflammation), hence we can control the flow patterns. Among the goals of this work are in vitro construction of transplantable microvascular networks, using bionanotechnology to create the sturdy scaffolding, and verification of nanofabricated drug delivery units within the vasculature. To this end, equally important are mechanotransduction of the physical forces associated with flow change (i.e., wall shear stress), the pharmacologic signal transduction systems involved (which guide drug discovery and intervention), and the molecular basis for the committed step that ensures healthy flow delivery. Our work employs computational modeling of the fluid mechanics, the physiology of arteriolar network blood flow (in vivo and in vitro), and precise genomic manipulation of key proteins in healthy and vascular disease states. "
Sitharaman, Balaji
Assistant Professor
Balaji.Sitharaman@sunysb.edu
Summary : Our laboratory seeks to integrate advances in nanoscience and technology with the biological sciences and clinical medicine to achieve significant advances in simultaneous molecular diagnostics and therapeutics (theragnosis), drug delivery, and bioengineering. Towards these ends, our research interests involve a multidisciplinary approach for the development of functional (electronic, optical, magnetic, or structural) bionanosystems as contrast agents for molecular imaging, as carriers for drug delivery, and as structural scaffolds for tissue engineering. Our current projects capitalize on the unique properties of carbon nanobiomaterials to develop a) advanced contrast agents (CAs) for molecular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), b) nanocomposites to improve the physical and biological (osteoconduction and osteoinduction) properties of polymer scaffolds for bone tissue engineering and c) non-viral vectors for gene transfection. We have exploited the potential of Gd-based carbon nanostructures: Gd@C60 metallofullerenes (gadofullerenes) and Gd@Ultrashort-tubes (gadonanotubes) as a new generation of advanced CAs for MRI and shown them to have efficacies up to 100 times greater than current clinical CAs. Our recent studies show that they are particularly well suited for passive (magnetic labels for cellular MRI) and active (pH sensitive probes for cancer detection) MRI-based Molecular Imaging. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been proposed as the ideal foundation for the next generation of materials due to their excellent mechanical properties. We have dispersed SWNTs and ultra short SWNTs into fumarate-based polymers to form nanocomposite scaffolds that exhibit mechanical properties far superior to the polymers alone and are osteoconductive as well osteoinductive. Our research work involves material synthesis techniques, physico-chemical characterization techniques, tissue culture and in vivo studies.
Strey, Helmut
Associate Professor & Graduate Program Director
Helmut.Strey@sunysb.edu
Summary : Nature's ability to assemble simple molecular building blocks into highly ordered materials, such as those found in cell membranes, cell nuclei, cytoskeleton, cartilage, or bone presents many fascinating and unanswered questions. We are interested in how to tune the interactions of water-soluble building blocks so as to induce their self-assembly into useful microstructures much needed for the next generation of controlled drug delivery, biosensors and DNA sequencing applications. In particular, we are working on long-range ordered polyelectrolyte-surfactant microemulsions that are used as templates for solid nanoporous materials using polymerization and/or cross-linking strategies. Such materials, because of their well-ordered porous structure, will allow more efficient molecular separation and drug delivery. In addition, we are developing biosensors that are based on biopolymer chiral liquid crystals and quantum dot colloidal crystals. In both cases the softness of the systems allows the induction of a strong optical response to external stimuli. Such sensors should be able to quantitatively detect and measure analyte concentrations at hormonal levels.