Our objective is to educate researchers and graduate students about the fundamentals of cell and molecular biomechanics, and to provide an intense learning experience, and to facilitate interactions among engineers, biologists and clinicians. The goals are to help train a new generation of researchers with in-depth knowledge of mechanics and biology and to help engineers and biologists apply biomechanical approaches in biomolecular, cellular, tissue-level, animal model studies.

Gang Bao applies nanotechnology to the tiny world of genes and proteins.

Bao, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, uses molecular beacons, nano-sized biomarkers that seek out certain disease-indicating genes and glow when they find them, to create new methods for early disease detection, imaging and drug delivery.

These beacons can be used to detect disease in its earliest stages and give doctors a much better understanding of how genes contribute to illness. Because the dots glow with a spectrum of bright, fluorescent colors, it is hoped they will improve the sensitivity of diagnostic tests for molecules that are difficult to detect, such as those in cancer cells.

Bao received his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering at Shandong Polytechnic University, his master's in applied mechanics at Shandong Polytechnic University and his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Lehigh University.

(Source: http://www.nano.gatech.edu/faculty-staff/profiles/gangbao.php)

MIT, NSF, GEM4, MechSE

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Gang Bao (2012), "[Illinois] GEM4 2012: Experimental Methods: Imaging," https://nanohub.org/resources/14741.

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1. Beckman Institute
2. GEM4
3. Imaging
4. MIT
5. NanoBio Node at Illinois