Presenters
Ayusman Sen, Pennsylvania State University
Ayusman Sen is a professor of chemistry at Pennsylvania State University. His specialties are nanomotors, catalysis, and new materials. He received a $25,000 award in 1984 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He has explained what he calls his own “irrational interest” in science with a quote from…
Presentation: Design and Applications of Self Powered Nanobots
- Ayusman is attempting to design synthetic active matter that exhibits emergent properties based on interactions, driven far from equilibrium
- It must be able to code and decode information
- Self generated energy fields are of interest here – catalysis and asymmetry
- The structure and function of systems materials must be investigated to produce nanomachines that can perform completely unique feats
- Applications include motion-based targeting, nanomotor information processing, tandem catalysis, analyte-triggered pumping, highly sensitive microsensors, and tuning rheology of fluids
- Enzyme motors can accelerate diffusion or perform chemotaxis, letting them move against equilibrium
- Nanomachine metabolons could create efficient metabolic systems
- The most accessible fuel in the body is glucose, but having motors that use multiple sources of fuel would be ideal
- Enzyme pumps could be used for drug delivery or drug concentration against equilibrium in the presence of substrate
- Ayusman has a vision for a multi-investigator center for autonomous fluidic devices which is multilayered, translating theory into a technology platform
- There was speculation on how to build in memory to the nanomachine systems, but it is currently a big challenge for the field
