Research

Summary
The motivation of the Biomedical Science and Nanotechnology laboratory directed by Dr. Mihri Ozkan is the development of bio-assisted assembly methods for future nanoelectronics, synthesis and application of novel hybrid, multi-functional and complex nanoscale systems for fabrication of better displays, development of solar cells, and development of cancer therapeutics. Our group members come from highly interdisciplinary backgrounds including electrical engineering, chemical engineering, chemistry, biochemistry and cellular biology. This multi-disciplinary environment offers both graduate and undergraduate students training in multi-disciplinary fields including biology and engineering.

List of Current Active Research Areas:

Hybrid Electronics and Optoelectronics:
To advance the current state-of-the-art device performances for both electronic and optoelectronic area, specifically memory, transistors, and photovoltaics a hybrid approach is taken. Our list of publications gives our published work in this category. In summary, nucleic acid and peptide assemblies are used for fabrication of CNT, quantum dot and nanowire based devices with “bottom-up” approach. RTD devices of CNT-molecule-CNT are demonstrated. In parallel, multi-site assemblies of plant viruses are demonstrated for non-volatile memory applications. Below are some of the selected results of our current research.

Bio-Nanotechnology:
Together with our collaborators in the Scripps Research Institute, use of icosahedral shaped viruses in 30nm diameter are investigated for the purpose of cancer therapeutics. Multi-site functionalization, targeted delivery are some of the active research in our group. In addition, nanoparticle-cell interaction is investigated for human breast cancer cells. Optical and electrical probing methods are developed to validate and quantify the nanoparticle-cell interaction.