While traditional analytical systems examine populations of cells, these nanoscale tools will be able to target individual cells and look at events that might be masked in population-wide analyses. Designs for devices which combine electrochemical, optical, and even physical measures are being explored and will be the products of the Microanalysis of Biomolecules. These devices will find utility in measuring biochemical events in cells and, moreover, surveying the effects of exogenous treatments on these cells. Insight into the effect of specific drugs can be obtained using the tools developed in this program.

Our projects include the fabrication of microscale mixing devices that allow rapid fluid flow and mixing, facilitating an examination of protein folding, a process that occurs on a microsecond time scale. Microscale detector arrays are being built that will permit the measurement of secretion from single cells resolving the site of secretion on the cell. The next generation of nanoscale tools we are developing will expand the range of analytical measures that can be made on single cells. Efforts are also being directed toward the fabrication of devices capable of measuring important neurotransmitters that will be used to explore neuron function. Beyond merely examining cells, and their response to various stimuli, cell systems will be engineered on a nanoscale to create a novel class of diagnostic devices. By combining analytical probes with microscale growth chambers, the effects of drugs on specific cell systems can be examined. A virtual mouse on a chip can effectively replace animal testing providing a more rapid, potentially more sensitive, analytical method.