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Integrating Circuits into Biological Systems

Watch this video to see Carnegie Mellon’s Marc Dandin explain his research in developing circuits that can be integrated into biological systems — revolutionizing how some tests are made that will speed up the process of drug discovery.

Topics:
Medical

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    Transcript

    00:00:08 I lead the Integrated Circuits and Bioengineering  Laboratory in the Electrical and Computer   Engineering Department. Our research is in  developing integrated circuits for interfacing   them with biosystems. For example, we develop  chips that we interface with cell cultures and   our goal is to understand how these micro  biosystems work and also to understand how   they work in the presence of drugs or how they  work in disease states. We foresee it having   strong impact in the pharmaceutical industry. For  example, we develop systems that can monitor cells   without labeling them, without staining them, and  being able to do that reduces your cost of sample   preparation significantly. And we use small  analysis volumes, so that means for a given   batch we can get a lot more data at a fraction of  the cost. So our systems will revolutionize how   some tests are made, some assays are conducted,  and they will help speed up the process of drug  

    00:01:16 discovery.    Our research is at a pretty high technology  readiness level. We have working prototypes,   we routinely conduct assays over several days to  weeks, and we are hoping that at this point in   time we can partner with a pharmaceutical company  to look at how our research can be translated into   a product.    So one of the biggest challenges that I've  experienced myself when I was in industry was   the lack of talent. Meaning this is a very highly  interdisciplinary field, and it's very hard to find   folks that are competent in, for example, biology  and then device engineering, and then technology   integration. And it's unusual to have all  these skill sets into one person. For example,   I think it helps to look at a student who comes in  to my group day one, and they're from an electrical  

    00:02:14 engineering background most of the time, and  they have some interest in biology and biomedical   engineering and so forth. And then I start talking  about cell culture and cell adhesion, and they get   worried. They're like, that's not my training, I  don't understand how to do this. That's day one,   but by day three they'll tell you every single  thing there is to know about cell culture. So   I think to me that's the most exciting part  is, you know, broadening your horizon by,   you know, learning different things and putting  it all together to address a very complex set of   applications. To me that's the most exciting part,  the highly multidisciplinary nature of the work.