Nanotechnology - Flinders Focus, Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia



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Flinders Focus on Nanotechnology

Biodevices

Nanotechnology can be applied in a number of ways; one of the most exciting is in the development of biosensors and biodevices. Flinders has focussed on this area.

Our expertise is underpinned by our combined strengths in chemistry, biology and materials science and by the fact that we share our campus with a world-class medical research centre. This overlap of expertise is unique.

Biosensors use biological elements to harness the potential of the many amazing molecular systems that have developed through evolution over thousands of years and combine them with cleverly designed materials. You can do similar things using non-biological systems, but without the same degree of precision.

Biosensors are predicted to have a huge economic impact not only because of the many foreseeable applications but also because of generally higher performance levels, energy efficiency, throughput and cost-effectiveness.

At Flinders novel sensors have been developed for DNA, disease markers, environmental toxins and glucose. We are at the cutting edge of this technology.

In our work with porous silicon-based biosensors we are matching nature’s efficiency. When our system recognises the presence of DNA or proteins it immediately amplifies the signal so that we can see it. The pictures below tell the story; visible changes have occurred where the binding DNA has catalytically destroyed some of the pores on the surface layer.

This simple and efficient principle can be used to build porous silicon chips. A single silicon wafer with an array of porous silicon may be able to test for hundreds of diseases in a matter of minutes rather than days.

Our projects:

Porous silicon-based biosensors
Elucidating the causes of neuro-degenerative diseases
Development of biochips for cell transfection
Biomineralised nanostructures
Multivalent interactions in cell membranes
Biomaterials

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