Lecturer Shares Vision for Biochemical Assays

Professor Albert P. Pisano, Director of the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center (BSAC) and Professor and Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California at Berkley, was the guest speaker at the Alwin Schaller Distinguished Lecture Thursday, October 16. During his talk on "Micro and Nano Imprinted Advanced Materials for Sensors, Actuators and Circuits, he described new technologies that may make it possible to create a complete biochemical assay system that can be fully integrated onto a polymer substrate via the use of imprinting of functionalized polymers as well as conductive metals on the micro and nano scales.

Biochemical assays have many applications-from the development of new drugs to the monitoring of pollutants. They can measure the pharmacological activity, toxicity and side-effect profiles of new drug candidates and assess the amount of pollutants being released by wastewater or urban runoff. Yet, because such assays involve liquid fluids, they are often messy, time-consuming, costly, and laborious and require a complex array of discrete pumps, valves and ancillary equipment to operate. The technologies Professor Pisano described in his lecture could make the whole process easier by making it possible to acquire, prepare, separate, concentrate, detect and extract biochemical samples using a solid state system that fits on a plastic strip the size of a microscope slide and requires only electricity to operate.

Professor Pisano is a Director of the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center and Professor and FANUC Chair of Mechanical Systems in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. A member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, he was named among the "100 Notable People" by Medical Devices and Diagnostic Industry magazine. He previously served as Director of the Electronics Research Laboratory, the largest organized research unit on the UC Berkeley campus. He has held research positions within Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Singer Sewing Machines Corporate R & D Center, and General Motors Research Labs. From 1977 to 1999, he served as program manager for the MEMS program at DARPA in Arlington, Virginia, where he expanded the MEMS research portfolio to 83 contracts awarded nationwide with expenditures in excess of $168 million.

The Alwin Schaller Endowment Fund that made the lecture possible was established by engineering pioneer, Illinois alumnus and civic leader Alwin Schaller in memory of the late mechanical engineering professor George Alfred Goodenough, whom he described as a "major force" in shaping his career.