Biosensors and Bioelectrical Technology Group

The overall goal of Pourmand's lab is to develop new tools and technologies, both biological and electronic, to detect and study genes and proteins; these tools will lower the cost and increase the speed of the analysis.

The primary focus of Pourmand’s research is to develop novel technologies and to validate these technologies by implementing them on important biological systems.

We believe the next generation of technology should integrate biology with nanofabrication. We are extensively exploring those technologies that directly convert a biological component to an electrical signal. In doing so we may be able to avoid the expense and time usually involved in biological amplification of the signal and the use of special readout material such as fluorescent dyes and then the corresponding complexity of the detection device. The envisioned instruments could be battery powered and hand-held, probably very inexpensive and thus could have not only an impact in clinical medicine in the developed countries, but could also be used in the developing world. The technologies under development must either allow researchers to address biological questions that were previously considered impossible or impractical or they must make significant improvements in existing technology for speed, accuracy, throughput or cost.