Adventures in technology

LSU's CBM 2 project crosses the boundaries between micro- and nanotech, biology and engineering, medicine and homeland security.

By Rob Anderson

Taking a break from the lab to visit his office, LSU Chemistry Professor Steve Soper seems hyperenergized as he considers the opportunities and obstacles ahead of him as director of LSU's new Center for Biomodular Multi-Scale Systems. In particular, he is contemplating a unique challenge he and other center researchers face every day: communication.

The new center, dubbed CBM 2 , is a multmillion dollar project that brings together researchers from across LSU and from institutions around the state and country. Its stated mission is "the delivery of new technologies and biomarkers that will provide unprecedented capabilities for medicine, drug discovery and homeland defense."

Certainly, developing technologies that could revolutionize the way medicine is practiced and crimes are solved is a daunting task, but Soper, who is also on faculty in LSU's Department of Mechanical Engineering, says language is one of the most significant barriers center researchers must overcome.

"Since we have engineers, chemists and biologists involved in our programs, we all speak a different language," he explains.

CBM 2 represents a collaboration between researchers at LSU, LSU's Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD), the LSU Health Sciences Center, Louisiana Tech, Tulane Health Science Center and Xavier University in New Orleans, as well as out-of-state institutions such as Cornell Medical College, Baylor College of Medicine and the Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Institute.

The three primary specialties that the center brings together are biological sciences, chemistry and engineering. This includes a variety of subspecialties, such as microbiology, analytical chemistry, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. Specialists in other areas, such as physics, are also involved.

Currently, 27 faculty members from the various Louisiana institutional partners are involved in the center's work. A total of more than 200 people from around the state and country are taking part, including graduate students, undergraduates, post-doctoral researchers and staff members.

The Center for Biomodular Multi-Scale Systems takes its name from the types of devices that are being developed there. According to Soper, many of these devices involve the fabrication of nano- and millimeter-sized modules that can be "stacked into three-dimensional designs for building integrated systems," similar to a computer in which various "chips" are placed on a bus to process information.

The center also represents one of the recent trends in the world of science and engineering: multidisciplinary research, or the teaming of investigators with diverse expertise on projects that cut across specializations. Projects being undertaken by CBM 2 participants span a wide spectrum, from the creation of new breast cancer diagnostic tools to the development of new DNA fingerprinting technology.

This is where the communication issue arises.

"We have to learn each other's languages and we have to learn how to present our data in a way that's understandable not just to our peers, but to people in other types of disciplines," Soper says.

Nevertheless, Soper says that LSU has a head start on dealing with such issues. Indeed, he says, many members of the CBM 2 team have been bridging the specialty divide for years now, working together on a number of projects. In addition, LSU has developed a plan for helping faculty and student researchers learn about topics and projects that are not in their fields.

"We've formed a number of different seminar series in which large, diverse groups of students and faculty are learning and talking about projects that are completely out of their major theme, so we can bring everyone up to a level where they are conversant in each other's disciplines," explains Soper, who is also a member of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Besides, he says, the unique work that will be conducted by CBM 2 requires a diversity of expertise.

"Most of the research we will be doing is extremely complex. No one individual has the expertise to embark on such an adventure."

And the adventure Soper and the center's team are embarking on could pay tremendous dividends. The center, located south of the LSU campus in a 45,000-square-foot lab and office complex formerly owned by Albemarle chemical company, may well be the launch pad for groundbreaking micro- and nanotechnology, as well as new businesses and education initiatives.

According to Soper, the CBM 2 project has three primary goals: educational outreach, industrial outreach and research. The educational outreach effort is headed up by LSU mechanical engineering professor Warren Waggenspack, and involves specific programs targeting not only graduate and undergraduate students, but grade school students as well. The industrial outreach, headed by David Claypool, involves working with companies on the development of devices for use in the private sector, submitting patents and facilitating the creation of start-up companies.

Finally, the research aspect involves the hard science that will lead to the development of groundbreaking devices, biomarkers and processes. Indeed, Soper says, it is innovative research and the dedicated, knowledgeable researchers conducting it that will be the backbone of the center. The faculty involved in the center collectively bring more than $100 million in ongoing research funding to the table.

Some of the ongoing research that will now take place at the center includes:

• A project in which center researchers are working with investigators from the Hansen's Disease Center to develop a pathogen detection system that could have homeland security applications;

• A project to develop point-of-care colorectal cancer detection tools. The project teams LSU mechanical engineering associate professor Michael Murphy, associate director of fabrication at CBM 2 , with other mechanical engineering specialists and chemists, as well as representatives from Cornell and Sloan Kettering;

• A project that teams LSU biological sciences professor Mark Batzer, associate director of biological sciences at CBM 2 , with Soper, McCarley and Murphy. The team is working to produce a miniaturized device for fast, low-cost DNA sequencing and genotyping. Batzer is also working with private industry partners on the development of mobile devices for detecting trace quantities of DNA. Together, these projects could be valuable to forensics investigators, as they would allow for rapid characterization of trace DNA samples at crime scenes, as well as on-site analysis in order to minimize the possibility of contamination.

The remarkable multidisciplinary nature of CBM 2 research is perfectly exemplified by the cancer detection tool project. According to Soper, the detection devices that the team is developing will screen "a large panel of genetic markers" in order to provide short processing times for important diagnostic/prognostic information relating to colorectal cancers.

"The devices consist of nanometer/micrometer-sized structures fabricated using lithography, the same technique that is used in the electronics industry to fabricate integrated circuits," Soper explained. "The lithography process creates masters from which replicate parts are molded using techniques similar to those used in making CDs. This work is supported by mechanical engineers."

The next phase of the device development requires new "fluorescent reporters," or dyes, that are being made by organic chemists. Meanwhile, the hardware for reading out the signatures from the genetic tests is being developed by optical engineers, and method development is being supported by analytical chemists. Final device testing on patient samples is being conducted by medical clinicians.

The center is funded primarily by a "Research Infrastructure Improvement Award," a competitively awarded grant provided through the NSF's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR. It was officially awarded to the Louisiana Board of Regents and the Louisiana EPSCoR program last year.

In addition to necessary staffing and equipment, the funding is supporting the preparation of the CBM 2 facility, which will serve as a central base for the supplies and labs required for the various research projects. Putting all of the equipment in one place is crucial to the center's goals, says LSU chemistry professor Robin McCarley.

"Interdisciplinary science really means that you need core facilities to support that," he says. "That's where CBM 2 comes in."

The facility will also provide the kind of specialized, secure lab environments necessary for working on delicate devices that are often so small they are invisible to the naked eye.