Division Leader: Rosaria Rinaldi

The strategic aims of the NEN Division of NNL are essentially twofold.  On the one hand, it investigates the bottom-up fabrication of electronic devices based on building blocks consisting of biological macromolecules with high information content (i.e. primarily nucleic acids and proteins). 

By exploiting the self-assembly properties of these macromolecues, new frontiers in miniaturization and integration at the nanoscale level may be reached (eg molecular electronics, molecular computing) that overcome several of the intrinsic limitations of current top-down fabrication technologies.  On the other hand, it intends to design and realise advanced analytical and/or therapeutic devices for biomedical applications.  Based on the ability to pattern hard and soft matter at the nanoscale, these devices aim to combine four main features: i.) miniaturization (to, or below the micro level), in order to reduce both analysis time and sample requirements; ii.) high sensitivity (ultimately with a capacity to detect and manipulate single cell/molecules); iii.) high parallelism, enabling high throughput (which is critical to pharmaceuticals development) and genome-wide span; integration of different functions (eg. sample preparation and analysis; target cell detection and payload delivery).

The division boasts sophisticated state of the art equipment for nanofabrication (from dedicated clean rooms to Electron Beam Lithography), for the manipulation of nucleic acids, protein and cells, and for characterization (including Scanning Probe Microscopy, confocal microscopy, spectroscopy and electrochemistry). Funding is largely via competitive projects, both from the MIUR and the EU.  Several collaborations are ongoing with Italian, European and US academic institutions (MIT, Phaneuf, etc.), as well as with industrial partners (STMicroelectronics, Sanofi-Aventis).