November 29 - December 4, 2015
Boston, Massachusetts
2015 MRS Fall Meeting

Symposium D-Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics

Through billions of years of evolution, living organisms have developed a wide variety of highly sophisticated materials to cope with a number of diverse and complex biological functions. Among these, interaction with light (i.e. absorption, emission, refraction) and ionic and electronic transport properties play a key role in many basic physiological processes. Only recently material scientists have started to develop photonic and electronic devices based on biological and bio-inspired materials. The use of biological materials can take advantage of in vivo production, enabling a combination of materials science and biotechnology which will open ground-breaking scientific and technological directions. In addition, hybrid architectures of artificial components (e.g. semiconducting polymers, quantum dots) with biological structures can be either obtained by self-assembly and chemical synthesis / modification or produced by “living foundries” or bio-factories. Examples of biological and/or bio-inspired materials which reveal intriguing applications in photonics and electronics include: photosynthetic systems, photonic nano-biostructures, biosilica, silk, melanins, DNA, many structural proteins. Living cells have been also explored as active components of electronic devices. The symposium will mainly focus on the materials side, and applications will be covered to complement and illustrate the underpinning chemical and physical aspects. These will include: (bio)synthesis, chemical or biological modifications of the materials, generation of new bio-hybrid systems, extraction, processing and assembly, ultimately unraveling the physical properties of complex chemical and biological systems. The symposium proposed aims especially to bridge the gap between the fundamental understanding of physical mechanisms coupled with biological and bio-inspired materials and devices applications, emphasizing the key role of chemical and physical aspects related to the molecular and supramolecular architectures of complex biological systems.

Topics will include:

  • Biological materials for photonics and optoelectronics (including biological photonic crystals, plant and bacteria photosystems, biosilica, calcite)
  • Biological materials for electronics (including melanin, silk, DNA, proteins)
  • Synthesis of bio-mimetic and bio-inspired materials
  • Chemical modification of biological materials
  • Biological sources of materials for photonics and electronics and biotechnological production of bio-materials
  • Photonic devices with biological and bio-inspired materials (joint session with the symposium E "Engineering and Application of Bio-inspired Materials")
  • Biodegradable, biocompatible and edible materials for photonics and electronics
  • Electronic devices with biological and bio-inspired materials (joint session with the symposium E "Engineering and Application of Bio-inspired Materials")
  • Living cells in electronic and photonic devices

Invited Speakers:

  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _0 (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _1 (Institute of Molecular Sciences (ISM), France)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _2 (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _3 (University of Missouri/Organovo, USA)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _4 (Technische Universitat Munchen, Germany)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _5 (University of California, Irvine, USA)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _6 (Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft, Austria)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _7 (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _8 (Italian Institute of Technology, Italy)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _9 (Air Force Research Laboratory, USA)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _10 (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _11 (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint Etienne, France)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _12 (University of Napoli, Italy)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _13 (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _14 (University of Washington Seattle, USA)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _15 (Life Sciences University (BOKU) Vienna, Austria)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _16 (CNR IPCF, Italy)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _17 (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _18 (Yamagata University, Japan)
  • D_Biological and Bioinspired Materials in Photonics and Electronics—Biology, Chemistry and Physics _19 (Donghua University, Shanghai, China)

Symposium Organizers

Gianluca Maria Farinola
University of Bari Aldo Moro
Department of Chemistry
Italy

Eric Daniel Glowacki
Johannes Kepler University Linz
Linz Institute for Organic Solar Cells, Physical Chemistry
Austria

Fiorenzo Omenetto
Tufts University
Department of Biomedical Engineering
USA

Clara Santato
Polythecnique Montreal
Department of Engineering Physics
Canada

Topics

biological biological synthesis (assembly) biomaterial biomimetic (assembly) cellular (material type) devices electrical properties electronic material optical optoelectronic organic polymer self-assembly semiconducting sensor