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Overview Course Objectives Learning Objectives Who Should Attend Course Format Schedule Course Instructors Course Co-Directors Apply

Nanomaterials for Biological and Pharmaceutical Technologies [10.01s]

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Date: July 21-25, 2008 | Tuition: $3,000 | Continuing Education Units (CEUs): 3.0

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* Course schedule and registration times

Overview

This course will provide a comprehensive overview of how nanomaterials such as nanoparticles, nanocapsules, micelles, microemulsions, liposomes, nanoporous materials, and polymer multilayers can be prepared, stabilized, surface-functionalized and assembled for applications in biotechnology, biomedicine, and pharmaceuticals. Specific applications include biosensing, drug delivery, imaging, bioseparations, biocatalysis, biomolecular assembly, and molecular diagnostics.

Course Objectives

The goal of this course is to present a comprehensive overview of how soft and hard nanomaterials can be prepared, modified and used in a variety of biotechnology, biomedicine and pharmaceutical applications, to industrial scientists and engineers and those with managerial responsibility for research. First the course will cover the fundamental physical chemical principles that govern the formation and properties of soft nanomaterials such as micelles, vesicles, microemulsions, liposomes, block copolymer nanocolloids, polymer multilayers and nanocapsules. The preparation of nanoparticles and nanoporous materials will be also be described. Second, methods to stabilize and functionalize nanomaterials, important experimental techniques to characterize the properties of structured fluids and nanoparticles, and methods to assemble nanoparticles in one, two or three dimensions for applications will be reviewed. Third, the applications of soft and hard nanomaterials to various areas of bio and pharmaceutical technologies will be discussed. Specifically, applications including biosensing, drug delivery, imaging, bioseparations, biocatalysis, biomolecular assembly, and molecular diagnostics will be emphasized. Throughout the course, effort will be made to provide a molecular and intuitive understanding of the field, accompanied wherever necessary by quantitative models.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe structured fluid systems, how they can be created from molecular species, and ways by which one can select molecular systems to generate the desired type of soft nanomaterials.
2. Appreciate the important experimental techniques that are available to characterize soft and hard nanomaterials.
3. Examine how structured fluids can be exploited to produce novel materials, including various nanoparticle systems, mesoporous materials, and polymers and gels.
4. Understand the various methods available to synthesize nanoparticles, functionalize them and assemble them into one, two or three dimensional materials.
5. Analyze how structured fluids and nanoparticles can be exploited for biomedical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology applications, including biosensing, drug delivery, imaging, bioseparations, biocatalysis, biomolecular assembly, and molecular diagnostics.
6. Model potential future applications that can come by exploiting the nano, meso and micro structural features of structured fluids and nanoparticles.

Who should attend

This course is designed for industrial scientists and engineers and research managers. The following groups will find the course of value to them:

• biologists, physicists, chemists and engineers interested in gaining exposure to the field of structured fluids and nanoparticles, including their physical chemical foundations and experimental characterization methods for adapting them in their own research activities;
• engineers and scientists in the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics, personal care products, and biotechnology industries, who are interested to learn how the soft and hard nanomaterials can be exploited to create new products or processes of relevance to their industries;
• managers responsible for research and development activities or process engineering who would like to gain an appreciation of the potential benefits that can emerge from the use of structured fluids and nanoparticles for creating new products or processes.

Course Format

The course consists of lectures on individual topics incorporating discussion periods on various subjects. Each participant will be provided with a set of course notes as PowerPoint slides and other supplemental lecture materials.

Lectures will begin every day promptly at 9:00 am and will end at 5:00 pm except on Friday when they will finish at 12:00 noon. There will be breaks between lectures and a break for lunch.

Course schedule and registration times

Class runs 9:00 am - 5:00 pm every day except Friday when it ends
at 12:30 pm.

Registration is on Monday morning from 8:00 - 8:30 am.

Course Instructors

T. Alan Hatton - Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering Practice; Director, David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

R. (Nagu) Nagarajan - Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University

Lev Bromberg - Research Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Course Co-Directors

T. Alan Hatton
Alan Hatton joined MIT in 1982, where he is now the Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering Practice; he was appointed Director of the David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice in 1989. His research interests encompass the fundamentals and applications of surfactant and block copolymer self-assembly, magnetic fluids and colloidal stability, and separation processes. He was Editor of the journal "Colloids and Surfaces", and is currently on the Editorial Boards of "Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science" (where he is also Section Editor for the "Applications" section) and "Separation and Purification". He instituted an Engineering Foundation Conference on "Applications of Structured Fluids and Interfaces" in Il Ciocco, Italy, was Co-Chair of the 73rd ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposium held at MIT, and co-organizer of the conference on "Surfactant Self-Assembly - The Future" in Massa Marittima, Italy. He has co-authored over 220 scientific articles and book chapters on colloid and interface science fundamentals, as well as applications of these fundamentals in fields such as separations and biocatalysis.

R. (Nagu) Nagarajan
Nagu Nagarajan joined The Pennsylvania State University in 1979 and retired in 2005 as Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering. Currently he is a research scientist at the Natick Soldier Research, Development & Engineering Center. His research interests span the fundamentals and applications of soft nanoparticles, particularly those generated by self-assembly of surfactant and block copolymer molecules. He has authored more than 80 publications in scientific journals and many book chapters. Nagarajan is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Institute of Chemists and has been the Program Chairman of American Chemical Society Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry. He has served as the Guest Editor of the journals "Colloids and Surfaces" and "Advances in Colloid and Interface Science" and as editorial board member of "Journal of Colloid and Interface Science". Ngarajan had the distinction of serving as the Chair of the 62nd (1988), 72nd (1998), and 76th (2002) ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposia. He teaches the short courses "Surfactants and Block Copolymers: Self-Assembly" and "Surfactants and Block Copolymers: Colloidal and Interfacial Properties" at industrial sites. He has consulted for or taught short courses at companies including: S. C. Johnson, Colgate-Palmolive, BASF, and Schenectady International. Recently, with Prof. Hatton, he co-edited the ACS Symposium Series book, “Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Passivation, Stabilization and Functionalization”, which is to be published in 2008. With Prof. Hatton, he is now co-editing the ACS Symposium Series book “Nanoscience and Nanotechnology for Chemical and Biological Defense”. More detailed information on Professor Nagarajan's research interests and publications can be found on the web address: http://www.personal.psu.edu/rxn/.