Location: A718, SINANO   

Abstract:   

Research at the interface between nanotechnology and life science has the potential to produce breakthroughs in fundamental science and lead to revolutionary technologies. Herein, I will show how we use chemically enabled design and processes to fabricate functional nanoelectronic devices based protein and to map the cellular behaviors in a nanomechanical way. On one hand, the natural biomaterials like proteins can be used for the fabrication of solid-state memory devices for the first time, where a controllable and reproducible bipolar memristive nanodevice based on ferritin can be fabricated by chemical immobilization of ferritin molecules within on-wire lithography-generated nanogaps. Such ferritin-based nanodevices with reversible resistance can be used for nonvolatile memory based on write-read-erase cycle tests. Furthermore, sericin, one of silk proteins, can be used to fabricate nonvolatile memory device for the first time. On the other hand, we can use cellular nanomechanical forces to fundamentally study the cellular behaviors associated with dynamic physicochemical interactions, where the dynamic forces and molecular components that shape these interactions. An example on nanomechanically probing the interaction between nanoparticles and epithelial cells will be given. We found that nanoparticles induction of massive disruption to the intracellular microtubule assembly, thus triggering a positive feedback that promotes stronger adhesions with the substrates, limiting cell motility. Research at the interface between nanotechnology and life science has the potential to produce breakthroughs in fundamental science and lead to revolutionary technologies. Herein, I will show how we use chemically enabled design and processes to fabricate functional nanoelectronic devices based protein and to map the cellular behaviors in a nanomechanical way. On one hand, the natural biomaterials like proteins can be used for the fabrication of solid-state memory devices for the first time, where a controllable and reproducible bipolar memristive nanodevice based on ferritin can be fabricated by chemical immobilization of ferritin molecules within on-wire lithography-generated nanogaps. Such ferritin-based nanodevices with reversible resistance can be used for nonvolatile memory based on write-read-erase cycle tests. Furthermore, sericin, one of silk proteins, can be used to fabricate nonvolatile memory device for the first time. On the other hand, we can use cellular nanomechanical forces to fundamentally study the cellular behaviors associated with dynamic physicochemical interactions, where the dynamic forces and molecular components that shape these interactions. An example on nanomechanically probing the interaction between nanoparticles and epithelial cells will be given. We found that nanoparticles induction of massive disruption to the intracellular microtubule assembly, thus triggering a positive feedback that promotes stronger adhesions with the substrates, limiting cell motility.  

Biography:   

Dr. Xiaodong Chen is a Nanyang Associate Professor and Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) Fellow at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). He received his B.S. degree (Honors) in chemistry from Fuzhou University (China) in 1999, M.S. degree (Honors) in physical chemistry from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2002, and Ph.D. degree (Summa Cum Laude) in biochemistry from University of Muenster (Germany) in 2006. After his postdoctoral fellow working at Northwestern University (USA), he started his independent research career as Nanyang Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University since 2009. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in Sept 2013. His research interests include integrated nano-bio interface and programmable materials for energy conversion. So far, He has published over 120 scientific articles, including in Nature Nanotech, Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, JACS, Angew Chem, and Adv Mater, and has given more than 80 invited talks/seminars. He is the associate editor of Nanoscale and the editorial advisory board member of Advanced Materials, Scientific Reports, and Journal of Laboratory Automation. He has been awarded more than ten prestigious awards and fellowships including the precious Singapore NRF Fellowship, the Tan Chin Tuan Exchange Fellowship, and the best PhD Dissertation award at the University of Muenster.