Nam awarded with Young Investigator Grant

SungWoo Nam, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, was recently selected as one of two recipients in the country of the Young Investigator Grant given by the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA). The award recognizes those who have demonstrated outstanding early career development in the areas of science and technology.

Nam’s research at Illinois focuses on the development of highly sensitive graphene-based biosensors with mechanical flexibility and ultra-high resolution that could probe extremely small dimensions, such as protein molecules or ion channel activities of living cells and tissues.

The nanoscale material graphene—a single-layer carbon atom—is ideal for this challenge. Compared to traditional semiconductor materials such as silicon, graphene is many orders of magnitude thinner, and can be translated into a sensor platform with micro-fabrication and some additional processing.

“Trying to detect a single molecule with a conventional sensor is extremely challenging. But with a really thin sensor at the nanoscale, when single molecules are bound to it, the graphene sensor can transduce such minute changes into a sizable signal,” said Nam.

With the more robust information from Nam’s biosensors, scientists would be able to detect specific cells or proteins in the blood that indicate, for instance, the presence of cancer or a virus. Thus, the primary application of his sensor platform is in the area of biomedical engineering.

Nam said there currently aren’t many techniques or tools that allow scientists to see these kinds of events take place. “Traditional sensor platform tools are big and also powerful in some ways. They’re cheaper to use and you can get a good amount of information from them, but the resolution is limited and sensitivity is challenging. With our smaller sensor we would be able to take those measurements much more precisely and with more information density.”

“This grant will help me to further develop my research in this area, where I use nanotechnology as a tool to probe biological phenomena and bridge the interfaces between nanoscale sensors and biological systems. There is a lot of potential here to find new solutions to traditional questions,” said Nam.

KSEA is a non-profit professional organization that fosters international cooperation between the U.S. and Korea and aims to help scientists and engineers develop their careers. Nam will formally receive his award and a certificate at a ceremony in Virginia on June 13.