“Single-Molecule Nano-Circuits” this Friday
Physics and Astronomy Seminar Series Presents
Single-Molecule Nano-Circuits
By Dr. Yongki Choi
Department of Physics
North Dakota State University
Friday, October 9 | 3:30 pm | HA 325
The integration of nanotechnology and molecular biology has the potential to accelerate progress in cross-disciplinary fields including biophysics, bioengineering, and biomedicine. In particular, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been widely promoted as promising platforms for the ultrasensitive detection of biological species, drug delivery, and bio-imaging. Recently, I have developed next-generation, biomolecular nano-circuits which are composed of a single biomolecule tethered to a SWNT field effect transistor (SWNT-FET). This approach has opened up an entirely new way of watching and recording the individual molecules’ action in real time. For example, the observation of nano-circuits composed of our immune protein have allowed the monitoring of the ways our immune protein fights harmful bacteria, along with the DNA replication protein have revealed how fast and accurately our DNA is duplicated. In this talk, I will discuss the principles of the approach and the tremendous potential this research brings to bio-nanoscience and bio-medical applications.