About IBNAM

Nanoscience in Simple Terms

  • The basic measuring unit of nanoscience is the nanometer, which equals the width of two to ten atoms.
  • One nanometer is 10,000 times smaller than a strand of human hair, or 10,000 times smaller than an ordinary living cell.
  • Operating at this scale allows scientists to prepare smart objects that can invade small spaces and target specific parts of the body, such as the brain and even a precise part of a single cell.

The Revolution to Come

In this remarkable age of scientific advancements, we foresee an era of discovery in which bioengineering and nanoscience will have a profound impact on the way medicine is practiced. These remarkable developments will be led by bioengineering, an emerging discipline that applies innovative concepts in science and engineering to the solution of our most challenging medical and biological problems, and by nanoscience, the new study of ultrasmall things.

To be a catalyst for this scientific revolution, Northwestern University created the Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine (IBNAM). The Institute is destined to be a leader in bioengineering and nanoscience by combining the expertise of faculty members of the Feinberg School of Medicine, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences in a collaborative environment.

The Institute promotes interdisciplinary research and education in biomedical science and engineering that will ultimately contribute to the development of highly advanced (and, in some cases, currently unknown) procedures in human medicine. This is pursued by fostering discoveries in science and engineering that could be applied to advanced medicine, particularly phenomena involving nanoscale objects.

Making the Revolution Happen

Current efforts at the Institute include collaborations with not only several medical departments but also engineering and physical and biological sciences departments and other interdisciplinary research centers, such as the Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly, Materials Research Center, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, and Institute for Neuroscience. In addition, IBNAM will have research affiliations with Northwestern’s teaching hospitals: the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, and Children’s Memorial Hospital. Research and graduate education are highly integrated at Northwesten and, implementing the approach, the Institute will promote training as well as research in advanced science and technology for health applications.

The Institute performs research in fields such as self-assembly, tissue engineering, genomics, smart drug delivery, and other new technologies that can have profound impacts on medicine. Through bioengineering and nanoscience, medical science may provide tools for detecting and stopping cancer before it starts, reversing paralysis, regrowing body parts, preventing our most dreaded diseases such as Alzheimer’s and diabetes—even slowing the aging process.

Advanced scientific fields such as nanoscience may provide the means to accelerate the current, laborious method of genome sequencing, offer new techniques for characterizing the internal structure of cells, and help us mimic the properties of the materials and molecular machines found in living systems. These advances will make possible the development of

  • Rapid, efficient genome sequencing, revolutionizing diagnostics and therapeutics
  • Novel gene therapy approaches to disease
  • Effective and less expensive health care using remote and tiny devices to probe the human body
  • New formulations and routes for smart drug delivery that enormously broaden the drugs’ therapeutic potential by targeting specific sites or reaching previously inaccessible locations
  • Regeneration of missing tissues and organs
  • Sensor systems that detect emerging disease in the body, shifting the focus of patient care from disease treatment to early detection and prevention

Institute's Operation

IBNAM is located at the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center at the heart of Northwestern’s Chicago campus. In addition to IBNAM's offices and laboratories, the building houses the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University and research facilities for genetics and neuroscience.

The Institute is developing state-of-the-art facilities for synthetic and combinatorial chemistry, laser optics, computation and visualization, advanced microscopes, and clean rooms with chemical and biological research equipment to explore the interface between biology and electronics or photonics at the molecular level.

The Institute’s director and senior management oversee IBNAM’s development and day-to-day research and administrative services in support of faculty members, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. Potential participants in the Institute come from the three partner schools.