Mohammad Tavakoli 4 th Mini-Seminar in Physiology of Brain & Cognition Instructor: Dr. Gharibzadeh Spring 2008

 Atomic Technology:  Concerning Energy  Biotechnology & Stem Cells:  Concerning Life & Health  IT:  Concerning Information  Nanotechnology:  Concerning Very Small Things ;)

 How small would it be?  Millimeter: ▪ Wavelength of microwaves  Micrometer: ▪ One millionth of a meter  Nanometer: ▪ One thousand millionth of a meter  Angstrom: ▪ Hundred-millionth of a centimeter or meter ▪ Wavelength of light: 400 to 700 nanometers or.4-.7 Å

 Submicroscopic things and phenomenon are not visible in analytical manner!  Brownian motion in fluids -> Chaotic Environment  So What?  Computational Science  Prof. Rafii-Tabar (IPM)  Simplification & Idealization  Numerical Modeling (Abstract) & Computer Simulation  Supercomputers & Parallel Processing  Physics of Nanotechnology: sec. & m.

 Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM)  IBM (1980)  IBM website, e.g. Nano-tubes  Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)  Seeing like a blind person  Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy  The technique used here is same as MRI  Academic researches

 In AFM, a sharp probe is scanned across a surface, left, and by monitoring the motion of the probe from each pass across the surface, a 2-D line profile is generated.  Then the line profiles are combined to create a three dimensional image of the surface, right.

 Quantum:  Gaussian  Wein2K  Spresso  GPMD  Molecular Dynamics:  NAMD  Visualization:  AVS  VMD (Visual Molecular Dynamics)

 Nanomagnetic Structures for Atomic Resolution MRI  Nanowire-based sensor for ultra-high sensitivity magnetic resonance force microscopy  Amplification of magnetic flux in magnetic resonance by magnetic nanoparticles that promises to significantly improve MRI performance

 Problem 1:  In 2001 a patient in a British hospital died of heart failure shortly after being given an MRI brain scan!  Solution:  “Nano-coated implants cut MRI scan dangers” 2003  Problem 2:  How can we improve the MRI resolution?  Solution: Contrast Agents  What can Nanotechnology do here?

 Solution:  Superparamagnetic contrast agents (e.g. iron oxide nanoparticles) have become available. Superparamagneticiron oxide nanoparticles  These agents appear very dark on T2*-weighted images and may be used for liver imaging - normal liver tissue retains the agent, but abnormal areas (e.g. scars, tumors) do not.liver  They can also be taken orally, to improve visualization of the gastrointestinal tract, and to prevent water in the gastrointestinal tract from obscuring other organs (e.g. pancreas).gastrointestinal tract pancreas

The End