Nam awarded Air Force grant

Assistant Professor SungWoo Nam and his research group. (From left: Ryan Han, Jaehoon Bang, Jonghyun Choi, Assistant Professor Nam, Mike Wang, Jihyung Kim, and SungGyu Chun.)

Nam’s research group is focused on bridging nano-materials/devices and biological systems to enable new opportunities for quantitative biology in their natural forms. This research grant from the U.S. Air Force will be used to develop 3-Dimensional Nanotube-Graphene Heterostructures for Smart Nano/Bio-Interface.

"Living biological systems communicate with their external environment via pore-forming membrane proteins," Nam said. "These membrane proteins, or ion channels, regulate intracellular ion concentrations, and are fundamental to the physiology of living cells and tissues. However, conventional electrophysiology techniques that are used to study such ion channel activities, such as voltage/current clamp and patch clamp methods, tend to be invasive or even destructive. Consequently, non-invasive and high-resolution electrical detection of ion channel activities in living cells and tissues is critical to the next phase of electrophysiology."

Nam proposes the use of nanotube-graphene heterostructure biosensors as a highly performing, mechanically robust and minimally invasive sensor platform to study biomaterials and biosystems. Through the three-year efforts, Nam's group will be focused on (1) synthesis of nanotube-graphene heterostructures, (2) advancing the resolution of electrophysiology and minimizing invasiveness of measurement, and (3) creating artificial nanofluidic channels for abiotic intracellular access.

"These interdisciplinary efforts encompassing mechanics of multifunctional materials and bioengineering will equip the next generation of nano-electrophysiology with the lens and framework necessary to advance mechanics of bio-nano materials and bio-instrumentation," Nam said.

This grant supports research at the convergence of nano, bio, and information technology (NBIT). A total of eight projects were funded to advance the NBIT research related to the U.S. Air Force. Others include projects at the University of Texas at Dallas, University of California at Berkeley, Columbia University, Northwestern University, Cornell University, and Brown University. Nam was the only junior faculty member selected for this funding.