Welcome to the 7th Summer School

Methods in Micro - Nanotechnology
and Nanobiotechnology

September 12 - 16, 2011
Athens, Greece
View the Summer School Poster

Organizer

• National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”
  Athens, Greece www.demokritos.gr          

• Foundation of Biomedical Research of the Academy of Athens www.bioacademy.gr
  
  
• Micro&Nano Scientific Society
  www.micro-nano.gr
  

History: This is the 7th in series Summer School on Methods in Micro-Nanotechnology and Nanobiotechnology. In the past years, it has been the official school of the Nano2Life Network of Excellence (2006-2009), supported by the NaBiA European Alliance (2009), and co-sponsored by the PEOPLE-ITN CYCLON project (2010). This year, the school is provided with the support of the Micro&Nano Scientific Society.

Rational: Modern Research and product development in Life Sciences, Chemistry, Pharmaceutics, Environmental and Agriculture/Food monitoring is taking advantage of the Micro and Nanotechnology developments. Merging areas of research such as Nanobiotechnology have been created, which demand highly interdisciplinary research skills. It is thus necessary that many researchers from Chemistry, Engineering (Chemical, Mechanical, Electrical, Material, Environmental) and Life Sciences acquire basic principles and methods in Micro and Nanotechnologies in order to integrate better in modern research activities and/or product development.

This one-week intensive summer school will offer classroom and laboratory experience on the micro and nano-technology processes and applications in Life Sciences, and will promote interdisciplinarity and integration.

Syllabus at a glance

Lectures and laboratories with hand on experience on the following topics:

Section 1: Principles of biochemistry, cell biology, Microelectronics and MEMS
Lecture 1.1 Nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology for Life Sciences
Lecture 1.2 Principles of biochemistry and cell biology
Lecture 1.3 Structure of Biomolecules: Definition, Prediction, and Modeling
Lecture 1.4 Microelectronic devices and MEMS for biosensing

Section 2: Micro and Nanofabrication science and technology
Lecture 2.1 Conventional patterning schemes for bioanalytical microdevices
Lecture 2.2 Microfabrication technologies for polymeric microfluidics
Lecture 2.3 Patterning of biomolecules and other biological substances 

Section 3: Bioanalytical Methods, Imaging, and Applications
Lecture 3.1 Unraveling the proteome: Technologies, Applications, Challenges
Lecture 3.2 Proteome Analysis using Mass Spectrometry
Lecture 3.3 Scanning Probe Microscopy in Nanobiotechnology

Section 4: Towards bioanalytical LOC devices and systems
Lecture 4.1 DNA and protein arrays: fabrication, detection and applications
Lecture 4.2 Binding assays and Immunosensors
Lecture 4.3 Integrated Biosensing Devices  

 Labs

• Fabrication of microfluidic devices on plastic substrates by soft lithography and deep polymer plasma etching
• Fabrication of protein microarrays using lithography
• Fluorescence detection of protein arrays
• Protein separation by two-dimensional electrophoresis
• Protein identification by Mass Spectrometry
• Fabrication of protein microarrays using nanoplotter
• Bioinformatics basic theory & laboratory
• State of the art fluorescence imaging & confocal microscopy of biological samples
• Drug inclusion in cyclodextrins: monitoring in situ by NMR spectroscopy,
  X-ray diffraction characterisation of drug inclusion and 3-D visualization
• Demonstration of a capillary fluoroimmunosensor
• Operation of a lab-on-a-chip optical device using model assays and real time measurements

Who should attend: Graduate students with Engineering, Science or Life Science background, post doctoral fellows, professionals, as well as group leaders involved in molecular biology or biotechnology, who wish to apply micro-technology in their research. This summer school will establish common language between the various disciplines and promote interdisciplinary research.
Place for approximate 20 attendants.

Application deadline: August 31th, 2011 - Click here to download the application form.

Fees: The registration fee includes lectures, laboratories with hands-on experience in teams of 4-5 persons, notes, coffee breaks and lunches.
Registration fee: 800 €
Partial scholarships will be available for participants from organizations-members of the Micro&Nano Scientific Society

Contact points
Dr. E. Gogolides (evgog@imel.demokritos.gr)
Dr. A. Tserepi (atserepi@imel.demokritos.gr)
E-mail: PlasmaSupport@imel.demokritos.gr