Events Calendar

Integrated Systems Seminar Series : Prof. Peter Siegel, Caltech

Title: THz in Biology and Medicine: Towards Quantifying and Understanding the Interaction of Millimeter Waves with Cells and Cell Processes Abstract
Careful evaluation of the impact of millimeter and submillimeter wavelength radiation on biological systems is becoming more relevant as high frequency communications, radar and imaging begin to make their way into commercial applications. Especially apropos is the high power density, pulsed millimeter-wave crowd-control system known as active-denial. Methods to identify and quantify the impact of this radiation on a microscopic scale are just beginning to emerge. In this talk we will review traditional THz applications being pursued in the Submillimeter Wave Advanced Technology (SWAT) group at JPL and then turn to this new application area in he life sciences: submillimeter wave interactions with cells. A simple setup is demonstrated for remote temperature monitoring of water, water-based media, and cells exposed to millimeter wave energy. The technique relies on recording changes in the shape of a stretching band of the hydroxyl group in liquid water at 3100 to 3700 cm-1. Temperature changes of 1°C are readily distinguished over a range consistent with cellular processes (25-45°C) using integration times below 10 seconds. The instrument was used to successfully determine the temperature rise of a cluster of H1299 derived human lung cells adhered to polystyrene and immersed in PBS under exposure of RF millimeter wave radiation (60 GHz, 1.3, 2.6 and 5.2 mW/mm2). Following this, our first measurements of low levels of RF power on cell function were performed using a FRET (Forster resonance energy transfer) technique on cells tagged with GFP (green fluorescent protein) to look at the formation of membrane nanopores.

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Hossein Hashemi