Nano Lab

UnB platform is part of the Nanoscience Programme of the UiB and represents a framework for interdisciplinary research projects in bio-nano-technologies. It provides the technical support and expertise for the development of micro- and nano-featured systems, as a tool to study biological subjects and human diseases. Through the UnB, the local research community in Biology and in Medicine has access to fabrication processes developed in Physics and in Chemistry. At present, our platform is focusing on three major techniques:

• bio-compatible nano-patterned surfaces (BioNanoSurface)
• micro-fluidic systems
• micro-contact printing (µCP)

These techniques enable a large variety of applications such as:

• control of the surface density of and spacing between a specific molecule or OOOligand protein on a surface (BioNanoSurface)
• mechanical deformation of cells (micro-fluidic systems)
• cell positioning and cell confinement (µCP)
• tissue engineering research (BioNanoSurface, µCP)

One on-going application of micro-fluidic systems is to mimic blood flow in capillaries. The width of micro-channels ranges from 2µm to 100µm. With µCP, one can fabricate micro-areas coated with extra-cellular matrix proteins inducing cell adhesion and cell spreading. Typical area can be from 25 µm² to 10,000 µm². BioNanoSurfaces can e.g. present to a cell a hexagonal arrangement of RGD-peptides with a spacing ranging from 20nm to 120nm.   

Nano-patterned samples, micro-systems or combinations of them can be custom designed and fabricated to address specific scientific questions such as cell-cell communication, cell-matrix communication and cell response to mechanical deformation. All these questions are key-questions in tissue engineering and in understanding of human diseases. A focus will be to understand how different cell types can read nanostructures and integrate signals there from. Understanding of this process will enable us to use nano-patterns surfaces to program cells for specific biological tasks such as proliferation, differentiation or adhesion/mobility.

The close vicinity of the UnB platform to research departments in Biology and Medicine, namely the Institute of Biomedicine and the Haukeland Hospital, will boost interdisciplinary research projects between basic and clinical research.