From csbi-events at mit.edu Tue Aug 9 15:52:58 2005 From: csbi-events at mit.edu (csbi-events@mit.edu) Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 15:52:58 -0400 Subject: [CSBi-events] ICSB 2005 - Oct 19-24, 2005 Message-ID: The International Conference on Systems Biology 2005 will take place in Boston, MA at the Conference Center at Harvard Medical. Please register early space is limited! Hotel rooms are filling up fast and there are a limited number of slots for poster presentations. Tutorials October 19, 2005 Conference October 19-22, 2005 Workshops October 23-24, 2005 For more information, see attached flyer or go to http://csbi.mit.edu/icsb-2005/. 2005 Conference Deadlines: Abstract Submission August 19, 2005 Travel Award Application August 19, 2005 Early Registration September 9, 2005 Cancellation September 19, 2005 From csbi-events at mit.edu Wed Aug 17 08:30:07 2005 From: csbi-events at mit.edu (csbi-events@mit.edu) Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 07:30:07 -0500 Subject: [CSBi-events] ICSB 2005 - Oct 19-24, 2005 Message-ID: <20050817123008.D7FC02000F@ws1-1a.us4.outblaze.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/csbi-events/attachments/20050817/e765beb7/attachment.bat From csbi-events at mit.edu Wed Aug 17 08:38:20 2005 From: csbi-events at mit.edu (csbi-events@mit.edu) Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 08:38:20 -0400 Subject: Out of Office AutoReply: [CSBi-events] ICSB 2005 - Oct 19-24, 200 5 Message-ID: <55365B3D13845B4EAF38AA2CFF85699D033227@atlantis.cgr.harvard.edu> Al Daneau is out of the office I will return on Monday 08/22/05 From csbi-events at mit.edu Thu Aug 18 16:37:31 2005 From: csbi-events at mit.edu (csbi-events@mit.edu) Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 16:37:31 -0400 Subject: [CSBi-events] Thesis Defense - Friday, August 19, 2005 Message-ID: Doctoral Thesis Defense ----------------------- Thomas Burg Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Advisor: Prof. S.R. Manalis (Biological Engineering) Date: Friday, August 19, 2005 Time: 3pm Location: Bartos Theater (E15, lower level) Title: Suspended Microchannel Resonators for Biomolecular Detection Abstract: Microfabricated transducers enable the label-free detection of biological molecules in nanoliter size samples. Integrating microfluidic detection and sample-preparation can greatly leverage experimental efforts in systems biology and pharmaceutical research by increasing analysis throughput while dramatically reducing reagent cost. Microfabricated resonant mass sensors are among the most sensitive devices for chemical detection, but degradation of the sensitivity in liquid has so far hindered their successful application to biochemical assays. This thesis introduces a type of resonant transducer that overcomes this limitation by a new device design: Adsorption of molecules to the inside walls of a suspended microfluidic channel is detected by measuring the change in mechanical resonance frequency of the channel. In contrast to resonant mass sensors submersed in water, the sensitivity and frequency resolution of the suspended microchannel resonator is not degraded by the presence of the fluid. The device differs from a vibrating tube densitometer in that the channel is very thin, and only molecules that bind to the walls can build up enough mass to be detected; this provides a path to specificity via molecular recognition by immobilized receptors. Suspended silicon nitride channels have been fabricated through a sacrificial polysilicon process and bulk micromachining, and the packaging and microfluidic interfacing of the resonant sensor has been addressed. Device characterization at 30 mTorr ambient pressure reveals a quality factor of more than 10,000 for water filled resonators; this is two orders of magnitude higher than previously demonstrated Q-values of resonant mass sensors for biological measurements. Theory indicates that detection limits as low as 0.01 ng/cm2 may be achieved with the suspended microchannel resonator design, and a noise level equivalent to ~0.1 ng/cm2 in a 1 Hz bandwidth has been experimentally demonstrated in this work. This resolution constitutes a tenfold improvement over commercial quartz crystal microbalance based instruments. The ability to detect adsorbing biomolecules by resonance frequency has been validated through binding experiments with avidin and biotin conjugated proteins.