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SUMMARY:MEMS Biosensors and their potential for improving healthcare - Dr 
 Andrew Flewitt\, Department of Engineering
DTSTART:20141124T180000Z
DTEND:20141124T190000Z
UID:TALK53962@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Beverley Larner
DESCRIPTION:MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) is a technology that has
  been borne out of the semiconductor industry.  Historically\, it has used
  the fabrication techniques employed for making electronic devices to make
  these MEMS devices which incorporate mechanical elements\, such as beams\
 , plates and more complex structures.  By using microelectronic fabricatio
 n\, these mechanical elements can have an extremely small size (typically 
 between 100 nm and 100 µm).  These length scales mean that not only can w
 e make sensors that could be implanted into living tissue with minimal inv
 asion.  In addition\, the fact that the length scale is approaching a simi
 lar order to many biological cells coupled with the high surface area to v
 olume ratio and high resonant frequency of such small structures means tha
 t it is possible to detect biological agents with very high sensitivity an
 d without the need for amplification techniques (such as PCR).  The conseq
 uence is the prospect of being able to perform medical tests ‘in the fie
 ld’ and in real time without the need for sending samples of blood\, uri
 ne or other tissue back to a lab for measurement.\n\nIn this lecture\, the
  diversity of MEMS sensing technologies will be presented to demonstrate t
 he range of healthcare applications that are starting to emerge.  In addit
 ion\, we will look at an acoustic-based technology that has been developed
  in Cambridge as a specific example of how devices can be engineered to me
 et the demands of healthcare sensing.  We will also consider the impact th
 at this technology could have in the future\, from reducing the costs of h
 ealthcare to the National Health Service by enabling more preventative med
 icine and tertiary care\, through to the benefits that testing in remote l
 ocations could have on healthcare in countries where there is currently po
 or provision of access to medical specialists.
LOCATION:Bristol-Myers-Squibb Lecture theatre\, Department of Chemistry
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