Center for Nanotechnology has big plans for the super small

Viola Vogel

The information technology boom fueled by microfabrication of circuits no bigger than the width of a human hair is about to give way to nanotechnology that is 1,000 times smaller and vastly more powerful.

The new UW Center for Nanotechnology positions the University as a leader in this emerging field, which promises not only to make computer chips even faster but also to revolutionize industries ranging from manufacturing to medicine.

"Nano-scale science and technology is about to come of age; if the University really wants to be on the cutting edge we have to be big in nanotechnology," explains Viola Vogel, associate professor of bioengineering and director of the UW nanotechnology initiative. "The goal of this center is to create a vibrant intellectual and educational hub for the University that cuts across department and college boundaries so that the state of Washington can help lead this technological revolution."

university initiatives fund 1998

And she really means a revolution. For the first time in history, scientists and engineers can see, analyze and manipulate individual atoms. This makes it possible, Vogel explains, to study and artificially mimic the very process of life as it unfolds on the molecular level. Nanotechnology breakthroughs already are leading to greater miniaturization of electronics, more biologically compatible medical implants and new ultra-strong composite materials.

The UW Center for Nanotechnology was created with $1 million from the University Initiatives Fund, which reallocates resources from throughout campus to underwrite innovative, new programs strategically selected to strengthen the University and seize opportunities that otherwise would not be pursued.

Bringing together professors and students from a dozen departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering, School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine, the center will coordinate an interdisciplinary approach to research and education in nano-scale science and engineering.

New partnerships inspired by the center already appear to be paying off. Three nanotechnology-related proposals for multimillion-dollar National Science Foundation grants have cleared the first hurdle of review and have up to a one-in-three chance of being funded.

This is the first in a series of articles featuring projects that received UIF awards in 1997. Look for more articles in coming weeks. Also, information about the UIF program is available on an evolving website at: http://www.washington.edu/uif/

"The Center for Nanotechnology was an excellent investment for the University Initiatives Fund because it is sparking collaboration that makes us more competitive for major grants right at a time when the national trend in research is focusing on nanotechnology," says Charles Campbell, professor of chemistry and co-director of the center.

"It is widely recognized throughout the research community, both in academia and industry, that the next century will be dominated by developments in nanotechnology just as the past quarter of a century has been dominated by microtechnology."

For example, the current process of making computer chips by etching tiny components on a silicon wafer using ultraviolet light will soon be obsolete. As chips continue to shrink, this technique eventually will no longer work because the size of the components will be smaller than the wavelength of the light.

Rather than relying on this top-down approach of carving chips out of a larger block of material, nanotechnology makes it possible to build functional devices from the bottom up, molecule by molecule. Nature even provides models of how these devices might assemble themselves with self-directed molecules.

Another exciting application for nanotechnology is in designing more biocompatible medical implants. Researchers with the UW Engineered Biomaterials Center are studying the body's response to devices such as cochlear implants, vascular grafts and artificial heart valves that are implanted in more than a half billion patients a year. In most cases, protein cells identify the implant as a foreign object and direct the body to wall it off with scar tissue. This often disrupts performance of the implant and prompts further medical intervention.

Researchers are working to develop biomaterials that more closely mimic body tissue to prevent the body's hostile reaction to implants and promote normal healing. A critical part of this effort will be collaborative work with the Center for Nanotechnology to nano-engineer materials with molecular surface characteristics that send the proper signals to the body. Similar techniques are being used to design miniaturized sensors for medical diagnostics.

Vogel and Biophysics Professor Jonathon Howard are collaborating on research that aims to imitate nature's approaches to transporting molecules. The researchers and their students recently completed experiments in which they successfully controlled the direction that a molecule traveled along the surface of a nano-engineered synthetic material — the first step in developing what Vogel calls an artificial molecular trucking service.

"The next step is to figure out how to attach and release cargo on these molecular trucks, which could be useful for many biotechnology applications," she explains. "We want to really understand how nature exploits nano-scale transportation systems and then figure out how to replicate it in synthetic settings."

The UW nanotechnology center's strong focus on biochemistry and biotechnology is unique in the country, according to Vogel and Campbell. The University's international reputation for excellence in biomedical sciences and engineering, coupled with the burgeoning local biotechnology industry, positions the Puget Sound region as the national leader in biomedical applications of nanotechnology, the researchers say.

The UW therefore has a special responsibility, Campbell argues, to prepare a new generation of scientists and engineers who understand how to measure, analyze and engineer nano-scale particles. This requires an interdisciplinary focus and investment in infrastructure that would be difficult if not impossible to accomplish within individual departments, Vogel says, but has a promising payoff that made it an ideal project for UIF support.

The UIF funding will support 10 graduate student fellowships designed to increase interdisciplinary collaboration and to integrate research with education in nanotechnology. The fellowship recipients will be announced March 6 at a kick-off seminar for the center. The seminar will feature keynote speakers Steven Chu, a 1997 Nobel Prize winner in physics from Stanford University, and Felice Frankel, an MIT research scientist and science photographer whose striking microscopic images have appeared on the covers of Science and Nature and in the award-winning book, On the Surface of Things.

In addition, plans are under way to develop an interdisciplinary minor in nanotechnology, designed and taught by faculty from various departments and open to students from throughout the University.

"The sparks that come from bringing students from various disciplines together in a single classroom are very exciting," Vogel says. "Chemistry students ask very different questions from medical students, and this sort of cross-fertilization is vital to capitalize on the expertise in nano-scale science and engineering throughout the campus."

The UIF funding also will provide equipment and staffing for a nanotechnology facility featuring state-of-the-art microscopy instruments to visualize, analyze and manipulate nano-scale particles. The nanotechnology facility will be co-located with the Washington Technology Center's microfabrication laboratory in Fluke Hall to maximize the University's technical capabilities in analyzing and engineering nano-scale structures.

"The nanotechnology initiative brings together many academic disciplines and the multiple missions of the university — teaching, research and service to the community — in a promising blend," says Provost Lee Huntsman. "It offers the UW a way to build on established strengths to create an innovative education and research program — one that will keep faculty and students at the frontier of learning for a long time." ¶

Greg Orwig, News and Information