Professor Sonia Contera, Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Oxford University

Nano comes to life: how nanotechnology ushers physics into biology, transforming medicine, and the future of biology and …computing

How and why do we design and build artificial structures and even machines at the nanoscale using DNA, RNA,  proteins, and other biological molecules or construct hybrid bio-inorganic robots using the building principles of biology? I will explore how nanotechnology (the capacity to visualize and manipulate matter at the nanoscale) is revolutionising medicine in ways that will have profound effects on our health. From nanostructures  inspired by biology that can train the immune system to fight cancer or a viral infection, to nanoantibiotics that can eliminate resistant bacteria,  to the engineering of tissues and organs for research, drug discovery, and transplantation. More profoundly nanotech facilitates the study of biology within the framework of physics, thereby creating interfaces with other fields (e.g. bioinspired quantum devices and computer science). This will potentially change not only the future  materials, engineering and AI, but also the way we think about life itself, and  will give us confidence to  pose questions such as “what is intuition?” from a physics lab.