What if we had tiny machines in our body that can constantly monitor every nook and cranny of our body and if any anomalies are found, fix them locally. This can put an end to human diseases and even augment us surpassing biological limitations. Deblina Sarkar is building such tiny nanoelectronic devices which are even smaller than the size of a single cell. These devices can reside inside the cells or inbetween cells and lead to early detection of diseases. They can also locally treat diseases of brain, heart and many more and even help us to reverse the process of aging.

nanoelectronics neuroscience robots biomedical devices BrainMachineInterfaces NeurodegenerativeDiseases neurotechnology brain biotechnology BCI BMI

image at 2.56: Biswajit Sarkar with images from stock.adobe.com by SciePro & Inok
Image at 3.42: Irakli Zurabishvili with models by IronWeber and Lauri Purhonen.

Deblina Sarkar is an assistant professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and AT&T Career Development Chair Professor at MIT Media Lab. She heads the Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek research group and carries out trans-disciplinary research fusing engineering, applied physics, and biology to develop disruptive technologies for nanoelectronic devices and create new paradigms for life-machine symbiosis. Her inventions include, among others, a 6-atom thick channel quantum-mechanical transistor overcoming fundamental power limitations, an ultra-sensitive label-free biosensor, technology for nanoscale deciphering of biological building blocks of brain and ultra-miniaturized antenna that can work wirelessly from inside a living cell. Her PhD dissertation was honored as one of the top 3 dissertations throughout USA and Canada in the field of Mathematics, Physical sciences and all departments of Engineering. She is the recipient of numerous other awards and recognitions, including the Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 from India, NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, the IEEE Early Career Award in Nanotechnology, Innovative Young Engineer Recognition from National Academy of Engineers, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award with the highest and rarely achieved impact score, the MIND Prize and the Science News 10 Scientists to Watch. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx