About KIBST

Mission and Goals

Single molecules, only a few nanometers (a “nano” is at the scale of 10-9 meter) in scale, create and control life. Nanoscience offers engineers a way to get a close-up view of life itself—near atomic resolution images to determine the structure and function of proteins and even to follow the dynamics of individual molecules. Likewise, advances in microfabrication and microfluidics (manipulating matter and materials) are likely to lead to new types of computer chips or tiny machines that could deliver medicine or detect viruses.

Understanding life at the smallest levels could offer dramatic changes in both basic biology and, on a more mundane level, transform a trip to the doctor’s office. The intersections among biology and engineering represent some of the most fruitful in basic and applied research.

The Kavli Institute for BioNano Science and Technology (KIBST) seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the functioning of life and biology at the nanoscale level. The Institute:

• brings together a wide range of scientists, including physicists, engineers, chemists, biologists as well as HMS clinicians to address fundamental questions about the behavior and functioning of biological systems;


• allows biologists, engineers, and clinicians to potentially use such knowledge to foster applications and new technologies; and


• provides a way for the tool-developers (physicists, engineers, computer scientists) to work with the tool-users (biologists, chemists, clinicians) in the early stages of scientific inquiry and encourage scientific collaboration at the innovation stage of tool development.

The most tangible outcomes of the KIBST will be the future discoveries, applications, and technologies that such foundational research enables. The greatest functional benefits are likely to come in the form of enhanced collaborations among faculty across the campus. While Harvard faculty and students already pursue multidisciplinary work, even in the virtual age, it takes dedicated yet flexible resources to bring people together and to break down traditional barriers.

Activities

KIBST enables Harvard researchers across the university, from engineers, to geneticists, to physicians, to harness their talents, the tools, and knowledge in a coherent manner to tackle important basic questions in biology. Primary objectives include:

• developing new tools and probes that marry microfabrication and microfluidics with high resolution imaging using new methodologies to probe the behavior of single molecules, cells, tissue and organs; 


• creating new methods to probe and measure the essential relationship between structure and function that controls all biology;


• combining structural and functional studies that extend over all lengths, from the scale of single molecules, to the scale of cells, and beyond to the scale of tissues and whole organs;


• encouraging interdisciplinary research between the intersections of the life sciences and the physical and engineering sciences;


• training a new generation of researchers from various backgrounds; and


• enhancing the educational programs of the University, by promoting the development of courses involving faculty form multiple disciplines. 

Through such work, the KIBST seeks to achieve two broad-based goals: the creation of new ways and instruments to study the deepest question in biology and the application of such knowledge to foster technologies in the health sciences and biotechnology field. Students benefit by being directly exposed to a boundless scientific culture, by taking classes from and working with faculty on the latest research, and ultimately, taking what they learn with them into the wider world, whether they end up in academe, research, business, medicine, or public policy.

Participants

An accomplished and diverse group of faculty members is already engaged in research in areas that serve as the foundation of the emerging area of bionano science and technology – their work addresses, both independently and, in some cases, via collaborative research, a number of key questions in biology. In addition, Harvard's related efforts in biology, medicine, engineering and physical sciences will provide a key link.

Faculty members span various departments at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (such as Chemical and Chemical Biology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Physics, and Statistics) as well as broader science initiatives such as those in Neuroscience, Genomics, Center for Nanoscale Systems, and the Rowland Institute. Recently, the University established an effort in Systems Biology whose aim is to work towards a better understanding of complex cellular and multi-cellular systems, particularly utilizing quantitative measurement and mathematical and computational models.

Engineering and Applied Sciences, with almost half of its faculty with some interest in biology-related questions, has increasingly strong ties to the Harvard Medical School Quad, particularly departments such as Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Neurobiology, and Systems Biology as well as the teaching hospitals.

Governance

The directors will report to the Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and be guided by an external review committee. Consistent with the University’s guidelines for research centers and institutes, there will be a rigorous review every five years to advise the institute director, the Deans, and the University on the success of the institute in its scientific endeavors. In addition, the program will also name a group of three or four prominent researchers outside of Harvard who will conduct an informal review every two years to advise the director on scientific directions.

Harvard University |Harvard Engineering and Applied Sciences | Kavli Foundation