INVENTING THE FUTURE:

The Innovative Technologies Complex

Last year, Binghamton University acquired the former New York State Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG) property on the corner of Vestal Parkway East and Murray Hill Road, at the eastern edge of campus. The 21-acre site is slated to become the Innovative Technologies Complex, the newest addition to Binghamton's growing campus. The acquisition underscores the University's deep commitment to cutting-edge scientific research that will change the face of the future. Here's a glimpse of what that future will look like . . .

Tiny, custom-designed sensors implanted in your body stand silent sentry, guarding your health. A DNA sensor, developed by Binghamton University researcher Omowunmi Sadik, monitors your cells 24/7. It is an early-warning device designed to detect and alert you to the first appearance of cancer's calling card -- any mutation in the unique pattern of your individual DNA. Its presence will permit the earliest possible therapeutic intervention should cancer strike.

A second sensor, also developed by Sadik, traces and calculates enzyme activity, another reliable marker of your health and disease state. By measuring the products of enzyme activity in your cells, Sadik's sensors can tell whether too much or too little of a specific enzyme is being mobilized, aiding in the speedy diagnosis and effective treatment of a host of illnesses, including diabetes.

A third sensor developed in Sadik's laboratory launches waves of pre-selected antibodies into the bloodstream to track down and bind with their corresponding antigen -- things such as viruses, bacteria or toxins. If the antibodies find and bind with an antigen, measurable changes in the conduction of electrical current through them will allow the sensor to make a quick and certain determination about the interlopers. The sensor will use readings from the bonded antibodies as homing beacons to deliver controlled-release drugs directly to the disease site. As a result, harmful side effects to healthy organs and tissues will be mitigated.

If all of this seems just a little too sci-fi, hang on to your seat and take another look. In most respects, this world should actually seem quite familiar. It is less than a decade away, according to Sadik and other University researchers involved in sensor design.

BU chemist Wayne Jones, who has more than $125,000 in National Institutes of Health funding for sensor development, believes it's reasonable to expect a wide range of portable chemically and biologically inspired sensors to be in use within the next five years. "There are many developments that are not nearly so far over the horizon," he said. "Some of our work will be improving existing sensors within the year."

Jones, Alistair Lees and C. J. Zhong are all involved in research geared to creating portable sensing devices that will make it possible for scientists and others to collect and analyze environmental samples in the field. "In theory, you'll be able to take these sensors up to the Adirondacks to measure acid rain or into the field to monitor waste water, chemical plants, whatever," Lees said. "There will no longer be any need to collect samples and transport them back to laboratories."

And Mechanical Engineering Professor Ron Miles, who is building the world's smallest directional microphone, which incorporates a mechanism modeled after one found in the ears of a fly, is only about two years from commercialization.

Once renovated, the former NYSEG office building (above), now part of the University's 21-acre Innovative Technologies Complex, will become home to the Division of Research, the Bioengineering Department, the Center for Protein Dynamics, the Center for Transgenic Vector Development, and the Advanced Sensor Design and Threat Detection Facility.

A special makeover: from office to laboratory

The former NYSEG office building, a 92,000-square-foot facility, is on its way to becoming a mixed-use facility to support the kind of leading-edge science and engineering research exemplified by Sadik, Jones, Lees and Zhong. It will also serve as a center for community outreach, technology transfer and faculty-related business incubation. Renovations to the building, which has been unoccupied for many years, are under way, and the University has been promised $15 million in state Gen¥NY¥sis (Generating Employment Through New York Science) funds to help make that happen. This will be the first step in a plan to develop the 21-acre site into the Innovative Technologies Complex.

Extensive renovation and remodeling must be completed before the ITC's first building can be occupied, beginning with the removal of asbestos. The building's infrastructure needs to be rewired so that it can be networked into the University's computing system. In addition, several highly specialized high-tech spaces have to be created, including both wet and dry laboratory facilities, and some floors may need to be reinforced to make them capable of supporting heavy equipment.

Once complete, the building will house laboratories, research centers and offices representing a wide range of research focused on new and emerging technologies and related support activities. The Division of Research, which promotes and supports research at BU, will make its new home there. The academic departments and research centers will include:

• Bioengineering
• Center for Protein Dynamics
• Center for Transgenic Vector Development
• Advanced Sensor Design and Threat Detection Facility

In addition, the University's Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development and the Southern Tier Opportunity Coalition, a consortium of private and public interests, are expected to be housed on the site.

BU ranks tops in inventiveness

SUNY Chancellor Robert King cites Omowunmi Sadik's work as an example of the kind of innovation that is enhancing SUNY's worldwide reputation for research while offering real-time contributions to enhance people's lives.

"We are proud of Dr. Sadik and the exciting work she is doing at Binghamton," he said. "Her groundbreaking research in biosensors is fostering the development of new diagnostic tools and detection devices that have numerous medical, environmental and military applications. These discoveries will improve our quality of life, both as individuals and as a society, and help create a new, vibrant and healthy economy in New York's Southern Tier."

King noted that, because of work by Sadik and others, SUNY ranks among the top 10 U.S. institutions in patents issued each year and in the top 15 for royalties from inventions. In the past three years, SUNY earned more licensing income than either Harvard or Johns Hopkins universities. Across the board at BU, faculty creativity led to a record number of patent applications and invention disclosures during the past year.

Donald Colbert, assistant vice president for technology transfer and economic development, said these disclosures are very often of interest to corporations. For example, Sadik's research has attracted more than $300,000 in support from such companies as Creatv MicroTech of Maryland, Dionex Corp. of California and Utah, Daikin Corporation of Japan and Aromascan, Inc. of New Hampshire. Each of the equipment manufacturers is interested in using Sadik's technology to build sensing equipment for commercial sale.

Bioengineering: combining understanding with problem solving

The University has recruited senior researcher Kenneth McLeod from SUNY Stony Brook [see the Faculty Feature in this issue, page 10] to oversee the development of a bioengineering specialization within the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science's systems science program. McLeod plans a program that will give students a biologist's understanding of living systems and the problem-solving approach of engineers.

Omowunmi Sadik, associate professor of chemistry, had her research into an "electronic nose" highlighted in a special report on homeland security in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Her work was listed in a brief titled "10 Research Projects Meant to Keep You Safer." In addition to its many biosensor applications, her research involves sensors that can sniff out bombs and chemical-warfare agents.

Specially designed courses will introduce students to applications that extend from the molecular to the tissue, organ and social system level, he said. In the same way electrical engineers understand electrical systems, mechanical engineers understand mechanical systems and chemical engineers chemical interactions, bioengineers need a view of biology that allows them to look at the big picture and understand the rules of living systems so they can harness or change the rules when needed.

"Many people in medical and biological research are trained as scientists," McLeod said. "They know how to investigate a problem. But the most pressing problems in medicine and society today are not scientific issues to be studied; they are things to be fixed. And when you want something fixed or improved, you call an engineer; you don't call a scientist."

For engineers to effectively address problems of biotechnology and medicine, however, they also must learn to think differently, he said.

"We have very often tried to treat biological systems as if they are mechanical or electrical systems, and, of course, you can do that," he said. "I can start tugging on my skin and measure its elasticity. I can try to determine the force necessary to break my arm, see how joints flex and measure the torque it takes, but am I getting at the essence of the biology? Can I understand osteoporosis by breaking bones and seeing how some bones are weaker and some are stronger?"

The traditional difference between scientists and engineers, McLeod said, is one that the BU bioengineering program will attempt to underscore and exploit.

-- Susan Barker