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Team Headed by Dr. Lenka Halámková Designs Implantable Biofuel Cells Operating In Vivo
Dr. Lenka Halámková
Suggesting the use of implantable biofuel cells for sustainable micro-power sources operating in living organisms is still considered exotic. Also it is very challenging to design bioelectronic systems. So far, very few examples of abiotic and enzyme-based biofuel cells operating in animals (in vivo) have been reported. Also implantation of biocatalytic electrodes and extraction of electrical power from small living creatures is even more difficult and has not yet been achieved. A research team headed by Dr. Lenka Halámková (at Clarkson University) developed the very first fully implanted biofuel cell continuously operating in a snail and producing electrical power over a long period of time using physiologically produced glucose as a fuel. The "electrified" snail, being a biotechnological living "device," was able to regenerate glucose consumed by biocatalytic electrodes. After appropriate feeding and relaxing, the snail produced a new "portion" of electrical energy. This snail (with the implanted biofuel cell) will be able to operate in a natural environment producing sustainable electrical micro-power for activating various bioelectronic devices. The newly developed, implantable biofuel cell will find important environmental, homeland security, and military applications. This research is being performed under the general supervision of Professor Evgeny Katz as part of a CAMP program at Clarkson University.
Photo of a snail with implanted biocatalytic electrodes connected with crocodile clips to the external circuitry (close view).
Clarkson University Professor Cetin Cetinkaya Elected ASME Fellow
Professor Cetin Cetinkaya
Professor Cetin Cetinkaya, of Clarkson University's Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, has been elected a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The ASME Board of Governors confers the fellow grade of membership on worthy candidates to recognize their outstanding engineering achievements. There are only 3,187 fellows out of 119,209 ASME members.
Professor Cetinkaya is the director of Clarkson's Photo-Acoustic Research Laboratory and co-director of the Nanomechanics/Nanomaterials Laboratory. He is a researcher and educator in the field of vibration, elastic wave propagation, thermoelasticity, MEMS-based sensors, particle adhesion and removal, and symbolic computing. His recent research found key applications in the characterization of pharmaceutical materials and manufacturing monitoring, and for adhesion/removal of nano- /micro-particles in the semiconductor industry. A current project (awarded by the NSF) involves the mapping of charge distribution on a non-uniformly charged toner particle for determining fundamental contributors of adhesion force. New knowledge gained as a result of this work will be useful in the design and production of novel classes of energy-efficient emulsion aggregation toner and associated powder handling/deposition systems.
Cetinkaya's research program at Clarkson University has received funding and grants from many agencies and major corporations, including the U.S. Army Research Office, the NSF, the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation, the Consortium for the Advancement of Manufacturing in Pharmaceuticals, International SEMATECH, and NYSERDA, and companies such as Pfizer, Xerox, Intel, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and Praxair Surface Technologies/MRC.
Professor Cetinkaya serves as an executive committee member of ASME's Systems and Design Group, is the past-chair of the MEMS Division of ASME and is a member of the Technology Roadmap Team for semiconductor surface preparation at SEMATECH International. He is a member of the committee on administration and finance of the ASME Technical Communities Operating Board, and an editorial advisory board member for the Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology. In addition, he has authored/coauthored over 60 referred journal articles and numerous other papers and is inventor/co-inventor for some patents.