About

Bionanoscience is an entirely new department within the TU Delft. The research line within the department is at the meeting point of biology and nanotechnology and is as yet largely unexplored. Cell biology is becoming increasingly an engineering discipline: the traditional approach of the biologist is rapidly changing into that of the engineer. Over the next decade, TU Delft is therefore investing 10 million Euro in the new Bionanoscience department, which will form part of the university's successful Kavli Institute of Nanoscience. Bionanoscience is the discipline where biology and nanoscience meet. The molecular building blocks of living cells are the focus of bionanoscience. The nanotechnology toolkit enables the precise depiction, study and control of biological molecules. This creates new insights into the fundamental workings of living cells. Furthermore, it is increasingly possible to use the elements of the cell, to the extent that - in a new field called synthetic biology - gene regulation systems, artificial biomolecules and nanoparticles can be developed and applied within the cells. The incorporation of new biological building blocks in cells is highly promising for applications in, for instance, industrial biotechnology and medical science.

The new department, led by Cees Dekker, will work closely with the Nanoscience and Biotechnology departments and will ultimately be the same size as the existing departments in the Faculty of Applied Sciences. To this end, the next few years will see an intensive recruitment drive to attract about 10 top scientists to the department.