The advances in micro- and nanofabrication technologies enable the preparation of increasingly smaller mechanical transducers capable of detecting the forces, motion, mechanical properties and masses that emerge in biomolecular interactions and fundamental biological processes. Thus, biosensors based on nanomechanical systems have gained considerable relevance in the last decade. This review provides insight into the mechanical…

Challenges for nanomechanical sensors in biological detection. Nanomechanical biosensing relies on changes in the movement and deformation of micro and nanoscale objects when they interact with biomolecules and other biological targets. This field of research has provided ever-increasing records in label-free detection sensitivity but it has not yet been established as a practical alternative for…

Recent paper in Nano Letters about the optomechanical coupling in nanowires. Here, we propose to exploit the optical resonances associated to the light confinement in subwavelength structures, efficiently extending optomechanics to nanoscale objects. We demonstrate this mechanism with suspended silicon nanowires. We are able to optically cool the mechanical vibration of the nanowires from room temperature…

Recent European Research Council projects cited in the general press, El País.  Source: http://sociedad.elpais.com/sociedad/2012/02/13/actualidad/1329119364_929208.html

This works shows that ATP-hydrolysis induces mechanical motion of a two-dimensional monolayer of gp19 ATPases as measured by coupled movement of an elastic microcantilever plate. Strikingly, the in-plane forces generated by the co-operation of bio-molecular motors produces stepped deflection transitions of the cantilever. The work has been developed in collaboration with María I Daudén and…

Interview by Dr. Mónica Luna for El Mundo, internet edition, in the section devoted to Nanotechnology. The interview versed on the applications of nanomechanical sensors for cancer diagnosis. Source: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/nanotecnologia.html