Nanobiotechnology

About: Nanobiotechnology is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 796 publications have been published within this topic receiving 46309 citations. The topic is also known as: bionanotechnology & nanobiology.

Nanobiotechnology: A voyage to future?

Abstract: Nanobiotechnology is an emerging field that is potentially changing the way we treat diseases through drug delivery and tissue engineering. Methods of targeting nanoparticles to specific sites of the body while avoiding capture by vital organs are major hurdles that need to be answered. Whether actual or perceived, the potential health hazards associated with the production, distribution and use of nanomaterial must be balanced by the overall benefit that nanobiotechnology has to offer biomedical science such as therapeutic and diagnostic applications. It would be difficult to deny the potential benefits of nanobiotechnology and stop development of research related to it since it has already begun to penetrate many different fields of research. However, nanobiotechnology can be developed using guidelines to insure that the technology does not become too potentially harmful. As Richard Feynmann has rightly predicted that “There is plenty of room at the bottom” to modify and enhance existing technologies by manipulating material properties at the nanoscale, therefore with sufficient time and research nanobiotechnology based early detection, diagnosis and treatment of various diseases may become a reality. Nanobiotechnology may bring immense paradigm shift that we would wonder that how did we live without it?

Engineered Inorganic-Binding Polypeptides for Bionanotechnology

Abstract: Future biomimetic systems, developed either for nanobiotechnology or nanotechnology, could include protein(s) in its assembly, formation, and, perhaps, in its final structure as an integral component leading to specific and controllable functions. In the new field of molecular biomimetics, a true marriage of traditional physical and biological fields, hybrid materials could potentially be assembled from the molecular level using the recognition and assembly properties of proteins that specifically bind to inorganics [1]. Molecular biomimetics offers three simultaneous solutions to the problem of the control and fabrication of large-scale nanostructures and ordered assemblies of materials in two- and three-dimensions. The first is that inorganic-binding peptides and proteins are selected and designed at the molecular level and through genetics. This allows control at the lowest dimensional scale possible. The second is that such proteins can be used as linkers or molecular erector sets to join synthetic entities, including nanoparticles, functional polymers, or other nanostructures on molecular templates. Finally, the third solution is that the biological molecules self- and co-assemble into ordered nano-structures. This ensures a robust assembly process for the construction of complex nano-, and possibly hierarchical-structures, similar to those found in nature.

DNA Nanotechnology: From Biology and Beyond

Abstract: Over the past three decades, tremendous progress has been made in our understanding of how to use DNA molecules to design and construct intricate nanostructures and nanodevices and how to use these nanoconstructs as versatile tools to functionally arrange a variety of molecules and moieties with nanometer spatial resolution. This chapter summarizes recent development in DNA nanotechnology and addresses its potential applications in drug delivery, analysis and diagnosis, electronics, and photovoltaics.

Bacterial traps and advances in nanobiotechnology for atomic force microscopy

Abstract: The atomic force microscope (AFM) allows the analysis of living microorganisms in physiological conditions on the nanometer scale. The observation of bacteria in physiological aqueous medium necessitates a robust immobilization of the bacterium to the surface, in order to withstand the lateral forces exerted by the AFM cantilever tip during scanning. Different immobilization techniques for AFM analysis of bacteria in aqueous media have been developed hitherto, however the immobilization techniques were dependent on the bacterial species and/or the aqueous imaging medium. We propose a robust bacterial immobilization method allowing bacterial species and medium independent analysis. We demonstrate the immobilization and AFM analysis of different bacterial species such as gram-positive and -negative, motile and non-motile, and rod-shaped, ovococcal, and crescent bacteria. The developed bacterial traps were used together with Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Caulobacter crescentus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Acidiphilium cryptum bacteria in their corresponding physiological aqueous medium. The developed microfluidic device allows simultaneous fluorescence and atomic force microscopy of bacteria. Moreover, we developed two different cleanroom microfabrication techniques for the bacterial traps. We thus fabricated nanotailored bacterial traps, allowing the immobilization of rod-shaped bacteria along their longitudinal axis as well as by the bacterial poles. Furthermore, we discuss the nanomechanical analysis of suspended silicon nanowires and hydrogels using the AFM. In the final part of the thesis, we explain the microfabrication method for AFM cantilevers with a low quality factor and elucidate hard tip integration into the developed multilayer AFM cantilevers.