Nanotechnology and Sensing

We are entering a golden age of biotechnology, in which a wide variety of biosensors deliver a stream of data that can inform healthcare decisions and therapies. BU BME faculty are developing novel technologies, based on mechanisms derived from bacteria and other cells, that can be used to detect a wide range of biologically relevant compounds; building smart devices (e.g., the bionic pancreas) that take advantage of current technologies in ways that will transform healthcare; designing inexpensive, field-deployable devices that can perform sophisticated amplification and detection of genetic material and other analytes in low-resource environments; building and studying novel, genetically encoded fluorophores to measure neural activity; engineering nucleic acids that sense and amplify molecular cues; creating and using methods for measurement of mechanical processes and properties at length scales ranging from nm to cm; and constructing novel quantum dots that are suitable for in vivo imaging. Our nanotechnology and sensing faculty work across the entire range of problems studied in the department. They work particularly closely with the photonics and imaging faculty.

Nanotechnology and Sensing Faculty

Primary Faculty: Christopher Chen, Edward Damiano, Allison Dennis, James Galagan, Alexander Green, Mark Grinstaff, Xue Han, Catherine Klapperich, John Ngo, Hadi T. Nia, Erica D. Pratt, Michael Smith, Michelle Teplensky, Joyce Wong, Muhammad Zaman

Research Faculty: Mario Cabodi, Jeroen Eyckmans

Affiliated Faculty: David Bishop, Selim Ünlü, Xin Zhang

Emeritus: Evan Evans

Affiliated Research Centers

BME Nanotechnology and Sensing in the news:

A Simple Test for Viral Detection

Nature Biomedical Engineering has published Assistant Prof. Alex Green’s development of a new test that uses strands of RNA to return a test result. [...] More

Green Garners Award to Develop Cell-Signal Sensor

Assistant Professor Alexander Green (BME) and a colleague at Yale University have earned a Scialog Collaborative Innovation Award to develop a new type of sensor capable of detecting heretofore hidden signals within a cell, with potential applications both diagnostic and therapeutic. In the dense chemical machinery of the cell, certain proteins... More

Trio Tapped to Join AIMBE College of Fellows

Prestigious honor for top biomedical engineers For the second year in a row, three ENG faculty members have been elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). This time, the honorees are Professor James Galagan (BME, Microbiology), Associate Professor Xue Han (BME), and... More

A Zhang Patent Honored Again

For the second year in a row, Professor Xin Zhang (ME, ECE, BME, MSE) was honored at the Boston Patent Law Association’s (BPLA) annual Invented Here! event, celebrating New England innovators and their inventions. Among this year’s most promising technologies, the 2021 BPLA ceremony featured a new metamaterial developed by Zhang... More

Photoacoustic Stimulation with Single-Neuron Precision Developed by a BU Team

By Caroline Amato An article by a BU team entitled “Non-genetic Photoacoustic Stimulation of Single Neurons” will appear in Light: Science & Applications. This research is led by Professors Chen Yang (ECE, Chem, MSE) and Ji-Xin Cheng (ECE, BME, MSE) in collaboration with Professor John White (BME) and Professor Heng-Ye Man... More

3 BME Professors Elected to IAMBE

Congratulations to BU BME Professors Chris Chen, Joyce Wong and Mark Grinstaff on being elected 2021 Fellows of The International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering. More

Joyce Wong Named President-Elect of AIMBE

Professor Joyce Wong (BME, MSE), has been named president-elect of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), one of the foremost biomedical engineering societies in the country. Her term as president will begin in 2022. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., and numbering 50,000 members, including the nation’s most accomplished biomedical... More

One Small Step For A Mouse: Using Information Science to Understand the Brain

by Allison Kleber How does learning a new skill or process change the physical structure of the brain? Using techniques from data science and high-dimensional statistics, Professors Bobak Nazer (ECE), Venkatesh Saligrama (ECE, SE), and Xue Han (BME), aim to find out. Their project, titled “Discovering Changes in Networks: Fundamental Limits, More

Society For Biomaterials Honors Professor Joyce Wong

Professor Joyce Wong received the prestigious 2020 Clemson Award for Basic Research. The award acknowledges an original and outstanding contribution to the basic knowledge and understanding of the interaction between materials and tissue. More

Klapperich, Pal Named AAAS Fellows

By Patrick L. Kennedy Two College of Engineering faculty have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. Professor Catherine Klapperich (BME, MSE, ME) and Professor Uday Pal (ME, MSE) were selected for extraordinary achievements in their fields by the... More