MRI: Instrumentation Acquisition for the Development of a Wet Facility for Nano-Bioengineering

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

0079243 Pruitt The objective of this NSF MRI Award is to develop a Wet Facility for Nano-Bioengineering that employs nanoengineering for the characterization of cellular to molecular-level biological systems. The facility will be unique in that it will provide laboratory equipment that enables characterization of living biological systems in their physiological environments. The research focus of the facility is based on the merger of nanotechnology and bioengineering which are both emerging fields with promise of great scientific breakthroughs in the area of tissue engineering, cell mechanics, biological processes, and imaging. The facilities will provide the resources for creating a biomimetic framework necessary for novel synthesis of engineered materials or devices. The impact of this facility will span the disciplines of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, bioengineering, and materials science, as well as the general areas of chemistry, biology and medicine. The acquired equipment for this facility will provide the necessary tools for nanoscale characterization of cells, proteins, interfaces, and BioMEMs structures. The approach to developing this facility is to acquire several large pieces of complementary equipment that would be difficult for any single faculty member to acquire alone because of the large initial cost and associated long-term maintenance. Thus, they propose to purchase the following systems using funds from this NSF initiative: an atomic force microscope and nanoindenter with fluid chambers for cell and tissue manipulation studies, a confocal microscope for cell imaging and manipulation, an infrared spectrometer and high pressure liquid chromatography system for characterization of protein binding, and an environmental scanning electron microcope to study substructure morphology of biomaterials.