Abstract
Nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, nanowires, nanofibers and graphene have potential applications for next generation microchips, composites, barrier coatings, biosensors, and drug delivery. There is also an urgent need to understand the hazards of nanomaterials to health. In this talk, the speaker will discuss some recent studies at Brown University on the mechanics of cell-nanomaterial interactions, including the mechanics of cellular uptake of nanoparticles by receptor-mediated endocytosis and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of complete lipid bilayer segments interacting with nanoparticles. The discussions will be organized around the following questions: Why and how does cellular uptake of nanoparticles depend on the particle size, shape, aspect ratio and elasticity? In particular, the speaker will discuss the effect of nanoparticle size on receptor-mediated endocytosis, the effect of elastic stiffness on cell-particle interactions and how cylindrical one-dimensional nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene enter cells.
About the speaker
Prof Huajian Gao received his PhD in Engineering Science from Harvard University in 1988. He served on the faculty of Stanford University between 1988 and 2002, where he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1994 and to Full Professor in 2000. He served as Director at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research between 2001 and 2006 before joining the faculty of Brown University in 2006. He is currently the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Engineering at Brown University.
Prof Gao’s research focuses on the understanding of basic principles that control mechanical properties and behaviors of materials in both engineering and biology. He is an author/co-author of nearly 300 scientific papers with more than 12,000 citations and an h-index of 58. He is a Member of the US National Academy of Engineering and co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, the flagship journal of his field. He is also the recipient of numerous academic honors including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Alexander von Humboldt Prize of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Rodney Hill Prize in Solid Mechanics of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.
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