General News

"Nano": 10 to the minus 9th power. One billionth. So small that we expect to see only the fuzziness and graininess of the molecular underpinnings of our world, its uncertainty, its dynamics. How surprising it is then, that the world of the very small should align itself in perfect order in some cases, allowing atoms to be manipulated precisely, like so many toy soldiers. Or, assemble spontaneously into structures that demonstrate action and function. And yet, properties of individual molecules and atoms are distinct from their aggregate properties, creating exciting new possibilities for properties of the very small. And how remarkable is man's ingenuity in finding ways to profit from thisÿÿ. In this year's Pinkham symposium, we plan to explore the very, very small and to better understand the applications of nanotechnology which might allow us to make unique new materials, tiny gadgets, and therapeutics to probe our world ever more deeply, to identify new ways to image the body and treat diseases, to revolutionize the world of computing and communications.

Developing and characterizing biocompatible surfaces including soft and hard lithography, surface patterning and imaging tools, chemical surface modification, surface passivation, reactive and responsive surfaces, and supramolecular assembly Engineering protein structure/function including protein structure and dynamics, structural modeling, phage display, engineered DNA/protein templates, molecular recognition, novel affinity tags, and self-assembling peptide structures