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Michael L. Roukes, Kavli Nanoscience Institute,
Caltech
The grand vision of Systems Biology requires instrumentation that will make it possible to follow the natural logic of complex cellular biochemical processes within interacting cellular systems -- in real time with single-cell resolution. Nanobiotechnology is poised to deliver this; it is beginning to enable the creation of ultrasmall electronic devices offering unprecedented opportunities for genomic and proteomic sensing applications. In this talk I will attempt to outline an (admittedly) long-term view of how cellular systems in hybrid devices might ultimately be harnessed for applications such as early disease detection, drug discovery, and fundamental medical and biological research. Micro- and nanotechnology are poised to provide the requisite tools for this and, indeed, a number of laboratories (including ours) are now taking the first steps toward this vision by embedding nanoscale biosensor arrays into microfluidic systems to form chip-based electronic laboratories for cell biology. When fully realized, such approaches will permit observation and control of multiple intra- and inter-cellular interactions. This technology will extend the opportunity to observe and ultimately reverse-engineer biochemical networks, through the techniques of systems biology carried out at the level of the "œcircuitry" of the individual cell. I will conclude the talk by hazarding guesses as to time scale over which elements of this technology will likely come to fruition.
Refreshments will be served at 3:30pm outside SAL.
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