2008 Woodie Awards
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Professor uses nano-physics to study cells
Daniel Reich designs microfabricated magnets to measure responses of cells to energetic fields
Issue date: 3/27/08
What would a freshman expect when walking around in Bloomberg's infinite cellars, pondering what research might hide behind those massive wooden doors?
Daniel Reich, a professor of condensed-matter physics at Hopkins, opens one of the doors to reveal a laboratory that looks somewhat familiar from science-fiction movies.
There, he is working with a team of graduate students to develop advanced tools for modern biology research.
Yes, biology research happens even in Bloomberg, the esteemed physics center on the Homewood campus. Scientists like Reich are increasingly finding a niche in the fertile ground between two very different scientific disciplines.
His research team is working on methods to study the interactions of cells and their responses to external stimuli.
Biologists have been studying cells in detail for well over a century, but by applying the principles of physics, Reich and his colleagues hope to revolutionize the way we look at them.
The main idea of Reich's research is to put two cells in a trap where they have their own "private" spaces and can carry out their behaviors in isolation, where the researcher can observe them carefully.
"This is a very efficient way to align cells since they are not swimming around erratically like in a Petri dish," Reich said.
To achieve this, a film of metallic cobalt alloy is spread on a plate of glass and magnetized. Then, small holes are carved into the metal film leaving spots where there is no metal.
Since all elementary magnets in the film are aligned, the holes will also acquire a polarization, with a north pole at one end and a south pole at the other.
A few thousand traps are created. In order to let the cells become oriented to the magnets, little magnetic nano-wires are infused into the cells. One can picture these as tiny magnets that lie inside the cell.
The plate is exposed to a magnetic field from the outside. The magnetic field causes the cells to turn with the north pole down. After that, the surface is cleaned one more time and the outside field is reversed.
Daniel Reich, a professor of condensed-matter physics at Hopkins, opens one of the doors to reveal a laboratory that looks somewhat familiar from science-fiction movies.
There, he is working with a team of graduate students to develop advanced tools for modern biology research.
Yes, biology research happens even in Bloomberg, the esteemed physics center on the Homewood campus. Scientists like Reich are increasingly finding a niche in the fertile ground between two very different scientific disciplines.
His research team is working on methods to study the interactions of cells and their responses to external stimuli.
Biologists have been studying cells in detail for well over a century, but by applying the principles of physics, Reich and his colleagues hope to revolutionize the way we look at them.
The main idea of Reich's research is to put two cells in a trap where they have their own "private" spaces and can carry out their behaviors in isolation, where the researcher can observe them carefully.
"This is a very efficient way to align cells since they are not swimming around erratically like in a Petri dish," Reich said.
To achieve this, a film of metallic cobalt alloy is spread on a plate of glass and magnetized. Then, small holes are carved into the metal film leaving spots where there is no metal.
Since all elementary magnets in the film are aligned, the holes will also acquire a polarization, with a north pole at one end and a south pole at the other.
A few thousand traps are created. In order to let the cells become oriented to the magnets, little magnetic nano-wires are infused into the cells. One can picture these as tiny magnets that lie inside the cell.
The plate is exposed to a magnetic field from the outside. The magnetic field causes the cells to turn with the north pole down. After that, the surface is cleaned one more time and the outside field is reversed.
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