Winnie Svendsen from DTU is the first speaker in "The Greater Copenhagen Nanoscience Seminar"

This seminar series is organized by the three nanoscience hubs located in the Copenhagen-Lund area. The aim is to to increase awareness about our mutual capabilities and to inspire collaborations.

The Greater Copenhagen Nanoscience Seminar-Series homepage

Format

In order to achieve effective cross-fertilization, we will test a seminar format of two parts, where the first consists of 30 min lecture and 15 min questions and the second a 30 min “collaboration-space” where you are invited to stay on in Zoom for discussing ideas and possible collaborations. The total time for the event is between 75 and 90 minutes

Zoom

The Zoom link will be e-mail to all members of the three research environments. in case you are interested and have not received the link, please contact: Gerda [dot] Rentschler [at] ftf [dot] lth [dot] se

Talk abstract

In this talk I will introduce the work we do in my research group involving nanostructured surfaces, nanoparticles, nanopillars and nanotubes for use in bio-analytical applications. Nanostructures have unique physical and electrical properties that make them ideal for use in sensor technology. For example, nanoparticles have a high surface to volume ratio, which gives them increased reactivity, and large surface to volume ratio. Silicon nanowires can be used as one-dimensional semiconductors for sensing charged molecules in a biological sample and nanopillars can enhance cellular growth and measure minute mechanical stresses.  

Figure 1: Left: silicon nanowire chip with four nanowire sensors made with in situ doped polysilicon. Right: Alginate beads containing zero valence iron nanoparticles. Each bead is 2mm in diameter

I will outline previous work done in my group using different nanostructures in bioanalytical applications (Figure 1 and 2) and introduce a new EU FET Flagship project, BIO-Stretch, where we will utilize nanopillars for novel applications. Although technological progress has made nanoscale fabrication relatively affordable, there is still a need to reduce costs with only minimal compromise of yield and function. In this work, I will highlight alternative methods to the rather expensive e-beam lithography for batch fabrication of nanostructures. I will show how these nanostructures can be utilized for extremely sensitive virus detection, enhanced cellular growth, extracting polluting chemicals from the groundwater and mechanical stress sensors.

Figure 2: From left: Self Assembled Peptide nanoforrest with PC12 cell culture; Silicon nanowire fabricated using standard UV lithography and E- beam lithography.

Short Bio

Winnie Svendsen received her BSc degree in 1992 and MSc degree in physics in 1993 from the University College Dublin, Ireland; here, she received the EOLAS applied research award for excellent research. Her PhD was from Copenhagen University and the National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy (RISØ), and was finalized in 1996. In 1996 she accepted a postdoctoral position at the Max Planck Institute for plasma physics. In 1998 Svendsen received talent stipend from SNF (now FNU) and the prestigious Curie stipend from Copenhagen University to establish a research group to design a hyperpolarized gas set-up for use in medical lung diagnostic. In connection with this project she received funding from the European Fifth Framework to organize a workshop on hyperpolarized gasses. In 1999 she was appointed associate professor at Copenhagen University. Since 2000 Dr. Svendsen has been employed as associated professor at DTU. In 2006 she established her own research group, Nano-Bio Integrated Systems (NaBIS), which integrates micro- and nanoscience in lab-on-chip systems to develop highly sensitive technologies for medical diagnosis and treatment monitoring, as well as environmental monitoring. In 2020 she was appointed professor at the DTU Bioengineering.