Penn
Receives $11.4 Million to Open Center to Explore the Boundaries
Between Nanotechnology and Biology
September 21, 2004
 |
Dean Eduardo Glandt with President Amy Gutmann
and Professor Dawn Bonnell celebrating the new Nano-Bio
Interface Center |
PHILADELPHIA
-- The University of Pennsylvania is one of six institutions
to receive funding today from the National Science Foundation
for a new Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center. As part
of the NSEC program, Penn's new Nano/Bio Interface Center
will bring together researchers from across campus to study
the intersection of technology and biology at the nanoscale
-- or molecular -- level.
The Penn center will receive $11.4 million during the next
five years. The funding is renewable for a second term, for
a total of approximately $23 million from the NSF program,
along with several million dollars in additional grants from
NSF and other government sources.
"As electronics and machines are driven ever smaller,
they will inevitably be integrated with biological systems,
which will have dramatic technological, biomedical and social
implications," said Dawn Bonnell, a professor in Penn
Department of Materials Science and Engineering and director
of the new center. "The new center will bring together
Penn renowned strengths in nanotechnology and the life sciences,
as well as lead the national discussion on the ethical considerations
surrounding nanoscale science and its potential impact on
humanity."
The center research program is structured around two major
themes: biomolecular function and molecular motion. In addition,
the center will explore two cross-cutting initiatives: the
creation of probes to analyze individual molecules and the
ethics of nanotechnology. A NanoProperty Lab will serve as
a national resource for single molecule analysis.
"The center will unite investigators from 10 departments
in Penn's schools of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Medicine
and Arts and Sciences to provide the two-way flow of information
essential to fully realize the combined benefits of biology
and nanotechnology," Bonnell said. "The center will
contribute to our understanding of basic physiology as well
as lead to new commercial applications, such as manufacturing
nanoscale devices and delivering therapeutic drugs."
The Nano/Bio Interface Center will also administer Penn new
Undergraduate Minor and Ph.D. Certificate Program in Nanotechnology.
The center will also actively work with the School District
of Philadelphia to introduce nanotechnology to students in
order to increase scientific literacy and inspire the next
generation of nanoengineers.
In addition to its cross-campus partnerships, the Nano/Bio
Interface Center will actively collaborate with other nanotechnology
initiatives nationally and internationally. These partners
include Drexel University, the Center for Integrated Nanostructures
at Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, the Nanotechnology
Institute, the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, and
Cambridge University and the University of Birmingham in the
U.K.
More information on the Nano/Bio Interface Center can be
found soon at www.nanotech.upenn.edu
More information on the National Science Foundation NSEC
program, including the names and locations of the five other
centers is available at www.nsf.gov.
Contact:
Greg Lester
215.573.6604
glester@pobox.upenn.edu
|
