NANOTECHNOLOGY IN THE SERVICE OF MEDICINE

Detection and quantification of biological and chemical species are critical to many areas of health care and the life sciences, from diagnostic disease to the discovery and screening of new drug molecules. Nanoscience and nanotechnology, whose unifying theme is the control of matter in this size range, allows revolutionary changes of the fundamental properties of matter and phenomena that are often drastically different compared to those exhibited on the bulk phase. Since dimensionality plays a critical role in determining the qualities of matters, the realization of the great potential of nanoscale science and technology has opened the door to other disciplines such as life sciences and medicine, where the interface between them offers exciting new applications along with basic science research. The application of nanotechnology in life sciences, nanobiotechnology, is already having a great impact on sensing, diagnostics and drug delivery. The ability to transduce chemical/biological binding events into electronic/digital signals suggests the potential for highly sophisticated interfaces between nanoelectronic and biological information processing systems.

Semiconducting nanowires are emerging as remarkably powerful building blocks in nanoscience, with the potential to have a significant impact on numerous areas of science and technology. During the last decade nanowire-based electronic devices emerged as a powerful and universal platform, demonstrating key advantages such as rapid, direct, highly sensitive multiplexed detection, for a wide-range of biological and chemical species from single molecules up to ultimate level of living cells.

During my lecture I will present representative examples in which these novel electrical devices have been used for the sensing of chemical and biological agents. Also, I will show newly developed strategies for the mass-fabrication of nanowire-based arrays, a critical and challenging issue in order to realize the real-world potential of these devices.