[Academic] FW: New member of staff - Roberto de la Rica - Biomolecular Tools In Nanotechnology

[Neil Hunt]

Dear All,

Please see below forwarded details of a seminar by a new appointment in
Chemistry/Bionanotechnology that may be of interest.

Best wishes,
Neil

>
>
>Dear All
>The Department is delighted to welcome a new member of staff.  Dr 
>Roberto de la Rica joined us recently and would like the opportunity to 
>introduce himself and his research interests to you. He will give a 
>talk entitled ŒBiomolecular Tools in Nanotechnology¹ on Wednesday 12th 
>February at 3.30 pm in TG314. Further details of his research are 
>outlined below. I hope many of you will be able to come along.
>Regards
>Debbie
>
>Our society is faced with increasing energy and health care issues, the 
>resolution of which has the potential to reshape the life of future 
>generations. Harvesting energy from renewable sources efficiently and 
>at low cost is not only a key factor to boost the economy but also an 
>essential requirement to improve the quality of our environment. With a 
>rapidly ageing population, developed countries are in need of new 
>technologies for high-throughput screening of patients inexpensively 
>and at the point of care. To make a real impact in these applications, 
>complex devices with outstanding features must be fabricated at low 
>cost and with minimal environmental impact. To meet these requirements, 
>it is often useful to seek solutions in the biological world. 
>Biomolecules can execute complex functions that have been perfected 
>through millennia of evolution. When added to the astounding physical 
>properties of inorganic nanostructures, these functions can improve the 
>performance of the hybrid assemblies by unraveling novel properties 
>only available in bioengineered nanomaterials.
>In this talk, I will show some examples from my previous work in which 
>biomolecules are used to improve the performance of common technologies.
>For example, enzymes can enable the growth of nanomaterials for energy 
>applications at room temperature, which decreases the cost and 
>environmental impact of the fabrication process. When combined with 
>top-down fabrication approaches, this bottom-up crystal growth process 
>allow the fabrication of inorganic nanostructures that can be easily 
>integrated with microfabricated circuits, a key step in the manufacture 
>of next-generation microprocessors. In healthcare, conventional 
>diagnosis tools such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) can 
>be turned into ultrasensitive biosensing platforms with intriguing new 
>features such as inverse sensitivity and naked-eye detection when the 
>signal generation step is controlled by an enzyme nanoreactor that 
>grows plasmonic nanoparticles. Furthermore, peptides can be used as 
>templates that guide the growth of fluorescent sub-nanometric 
>nanoparticles that are promising in nanomedicine applications. All 
>these projects were made possible by interdisciplinary approaches in 
>which common devices and nanomaterials were endowed with the outstanding
functions of biomolecules.
>
>
>[http://www.strath.ac.uk/media/stockmedia/icons/THE_2014_email_sig.jpg]
>Dr Debbie Willison PhD CChem FRSC SFHEA Director of Teaching Department 
>of Pure and Applied Chemistry University of Strathclyde Thomas Graham 
>Building
>295 Cathedral Street
>Glasgow
>G1 1XL
>
>0141 548 2282
>Mobile: 07791 570852
>
>The University is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, number
>SCO15263
>
>
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