Active Nanophotofluidic Systems for Single Molecule/Particle Analsysis.
		National Science Foundation Nanoscale Interdisiplinary Research Team
Home People Research Publications Education Outreach Funding		Overall Objectives To combine the recently developed technique for integrating nanofluidic systems and nanophotonic devices to develop an entirely new technique for nanofluidic transport, trapping, processing and manipulation of individual molecules and nanoparticles. To acheive this we are purusing 3 different research areas. FOCUS 1: DEVOLOPING A FUNDAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE COUPLING BETWEEN NANOSCALE TRANSPORT PHYSICS AND ELCTROMAGETICS IN NANOENVIRONMENTS Aims to develop a better fundamental understanding of the coupling of electromagnetics and hydrodynamics on the nanoscale and demonstrate the core elements of a broader nanophotofluidic transport architecture. FOCUS II: NANOPHOTOFLUIDIC SEPARATIONS OF QUANTUM DOTS Aims to exploit the advantages listed above with the aim of demonstrating the most resolute separation mechanism developed to date. This will be applied to the size fractionalization of poly-disperse quantum dots, for which no simple separation technique exists at present. FOCUS III: SINGLE MOLECULE SLOT WAVEGUIDE TRAPS TO STUDY PROTEIN FOLDING DYNAMICS Aims to develope a new mechanism for investigating single protein folding dynamics in solution. Existing techniques rely on either surface immobilization or encapsulation in a sol-gel to spatially confine the protein long enough for analysis. This serves to significantly alter the folding dynamics from what is seen in solution. Here we will exploit the unprecedented trapping potentials in our system to enable long-term observation of protein folding dynamics in the true native environment.