| Posted: April 30, 2008 |
Short course: Nanomaterials for biological and pharmaceutical technologies |
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(Nanowerk News) A newly announced course in MIT's Professional Education Program – Nanomaterials for Biological and Pharmaceutical Technologies – will provide a comprehensive overview of how nanomaterials such as nanoparticles, nanocapsules, micelles, microemulsions, liposomes, nanoporous materials, and polymer multilayers can be prepared, stabilized, surface-functionalized and assembled for applications in biotechnology, biomedicine, and pharmaceuticals. Specific applications include biosensing, drug delivery, imaging, bioseparations, biocatalysis, biomolecular assembly, and molecular diagnostics.
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Course Onjectives
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The goal of this course is to present a comprehensive overview of how soft and hard nanomaterials can be prepared, modified and used in a variety of biotechnology, biomedicine and pharmaceutical applications, to industrial scientists and engineers and those with managerial responsibility for research. First the course will cover the fundamental physical chemical principles that govern the formation and properties of soft nanomaterials such as micelles, vesicles, microemulsions, liposomes, block copolymer nanocolloids, polymer multilayers and nanocapsules. The preparation of nanoparticles and nanoporous materials will be also be described. Second, methods to stabilize and functionalize nanomaterials, important experimental techniques to characterize the properties of structured fluids and nanoparticles, and methods to assemble nanoparticles in one, two or three dimensions for applications will be reviewed. Third, the applications of soft and hard nanomaterials to various areas of bio and pharmaceutical technologies will be discussed. Specifically, applications including biosensing, drug delivery, imaging, bioseparations, biocatalysis, biomolecular assembly, and molecular diagnostics will be emphasized. Throughout the course, effort will be made to provide a molecular and intuitive understanding of the field, accompanied wherever necessary by quantitative models.
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Learning Objectives
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Describe structured fluid systems, how they can be created from molecular species, and ways by which one can select molecular systems to generate the desired type of soft nanomaterials.
Appreciate the important experimental techniques that are available to characterize soft and hard nanomaterials.
Examine how structured fluids can be exploited to produce novel materials, including various nanoparticle systems, mesoporous materials, and polymers and gels.
Understand the various methods available to synthesize nanoparticles, functionalize them and assemble them into one, two or three dimensional materials.
Analyze how structured fluids and nanoparticles can be exploited for biomedical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology applications, including biosensing, drug delivery, imaging, bioseparations, biocatalysis, biomolecular assembly, and molecular diagnostics.
Model potential future applications that can come by exploiting the nano, meso and micro structural features of structured fluids and nanoparticles.
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Who Should Attend
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This course is designed for industrial scientists and engineers and research managers. The following groups will find the course of value to them:
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biologists, physicists, chemists and engineers interested in gaining exposure to the field of structured fluids and nanoparticles, including their physical chemical foundations and experimental characterization methods for adapting them in their own research activities;
engineers and scientists in the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics, personal care products, and biotechnology industries, who are interested to learn how the soft and hard nanomaterials can be exploited to create new products or processes of relevance to their industries;
managers responsible for research and development activities or process engineering who would like to gain an appreciation of the potential benefits that can emerge from the use of structured fluids and nanoparticles for creating new products or processes.
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