Prof. Shantikumar V Nair, Dean, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, was the chief resource person at the Faculty Development Programme organised by the department of Electronics & Communication Engineering, LBS Institute of Technology for Women, Thiruvananthapuram, which is the research centre of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University. He delivered an invited lecture on the topic, ‘Bio Nanoelectronics in Medicine’.
Prof. Nair gave a comprehensive and informative coverage on the recent research trends in the field of Bio Nanoelectronics, that has enabled vast advancements in medicine, disease diagnostics and therapy. As examples, he presented some of the interesting and relevant research that is carried out in this area by the researchers at Amrita Center for Nanosciences & Molecular Medicine under his guidance. The interdisciplinary nature of these researches brought about a synergy of a wide range of disciplines such as Physics, Chemistry, MolecularBiology, Biotechnology, MolecularMedicine, Microbiology, ComputerScience, ArtificialIntelligence, Photonics, Engineering, EnergySciences – energygeneration & energystorage, etc. The interdisciplinary courses such as Molecular Medicine, Nanobiotechnology, Nanoelectronics are cutting edge. Molecular Medicine is a cutting edge course because it is the future of Medicine technology, likewise Nanoelectronics defines the future of electronics. Nanotechnology is an enabling technology that made such cutting edge programmes possible and hence it is not an independent discipline as such.
Bioelectronics is a field of research that interfaces electronic systems into a biological environment. Starting with simple pacemakers, electrotherapy, deep brain stimulation, wearable electronics, microcircuit skin tattoo, biosensors etc., bioelectronic applications are plenty. Nanotechnology enables advanced electronics applications such as Nanoelectronics Cellular Therapy where devices are created that can interact at the cellular level. Treating diseases and disorders using electronics which is known as Electroceutics, is based on the fundamental concept that the human body is an ionic system and functions with the help of generation of potential gradients that results in the ion transport. Prof. Nair explained that the creation of a nanomedicine itself is engineering a device at the nanoscale!