IPLS/BioP Seminar: Prof. Sonia Contera (University of Oxford)

Abstract: In the 21st century the sciences converge into biology  seeking to extract from its complexity, the recipes  that enable us to clear roadblocks in engineering, materials, computer science and medicine. From DNA and protein nanotechnology, bioinspired materials and robots, to drug delivery, immunotherapy and tissue engineering the methods of physics enabled by nanotechnology (the capacity to visualize, manipulate, and fabricate matter at the nanometer scale) are being deployed to transform the way we study biology  and we think about matter in general.  The incorporation of biology (including intelligence) into the realm of physics facilitates a profound and potentially ground-breaking cultural shift, because it places the study of life within the widest possible context: the study of the rules that govern the cosmos. In my talk I will explore how the deployment of nanotechnology facilitated the arrival of the Physics of life, with examples of my own research which expands both  biological physics and bio-inspired materials, and also fromm my recent book  “Nano comes to life : how nanotechnology is transforming medicine and the future of biology”