Jamming and the Glass Transition

Professor Andrea Liu's group studies the theory of jamming - the phenomenon wherein a system that normally flows much like a liquid (as with foams) become solid-like when subjected to shear stress.

 

CNT Transistor with Antibodies

Prof. Charlie Johnson's lab has produced new experiments demonstrating that carbon nanotube transistors (CNT) can detect minute quantities of biomarkers of diseases in less time than conventional methods.  Antibodies attached to 
CNT on a silicon chip change the electrical properties of the chip upon antibody-antigen binding hence detecting disease biomarkers.

SDSS Galaxy Survey

The UPenn Fit Catalog provides 2-d galaxy profile fits in several visible bands using SDSS data.  Additional data collected from other sources is provided to facilitate analysis. The catalog is constructed and maintained by Professor Mariangela Bernardi and her group.

 

Protein-Nanotube Hybrid

The image depicts a nanobiosensor consisting of a carbon nanotube (gray) covalently attached to the coxsackie-adenovirus receptor (magenta). This device detects the adenovirus, one of the viruses responsible for the common cold, when Knob proteins from the virus capsid (orange) bind to the receptor (magenta). These devices were synthesized in Prof. Charlie Johnson's group.

 

Nanoscale Electronic Nose

Prof. Charlie Johnson's group at Penn have coupled olfactory receptor proteins from mice to carbon nanotubes to create a prototype electronic nose. Olfactory receptors are embedded in nanodiscs that mimic the environment of the olfactory cell membrane.  Odorant molecules bind to the receptor, which produces an electrical response in the carbon nanotube (gray cylinder).