{"71616":{"#nid":"71616","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Studying Bacteria Communication for Future Nanoscale Networks","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThink the future of communication is 4G? Think again.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are working on communication solutions for networks so futuristic they don\u2019t even exist yet.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team is investigating how to get devices a million times smaller than the length of an ant to communicate with one another to form nanonetworks. And they are using a different take on \u201ccellular\u201d communication\u2014namely how bacteria communicate with one another\u2014to find a solution.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Ian Akyildiz and his research team\u2014Faramarz Fekri, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Craig Forest, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Brian Hammer, assistant professor of biology; and Raghupathy Sivakumar, professor of electrical and computer engineering\u2014were recently awarded a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation for the project.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOver the next four years, the team will study how bacteria communicate with each other on a molecular level to see if the same principles can be applied to how nanodevices will one day communicate to form nanoscale networks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIf the team is successful, the applications for intelligent, communicative nanonetworks could be wide ranging and potentially life changing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe nanoscale machines could potentially be injected into the blood, circulating in the body to detect viruses, bacteria and tumors,\u201d said Akyildiz, principal investigator of the study. \u201cAll these illnesses\u2014cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer\u2019s, asthma, whatever you can think of\u2014they will be history over the years. And that\u2019s just one application.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale, where unique phenomena enable novel applications not feasible when working with bulk materials or even single atoms or molecules. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices or structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMost of the nanoscale devices that currently exist are primitive, Akyildiz said, but with communication the devices could collaborate and have a collective intelligence.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s the question researchers are tackling\u2014how would such nanonetworks communicate? Because of their size, classical communication solutions will not work. The team is turning its attention to nature for inspiration.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe realized that nature already has all these nanomachines. Human cells are perfect examples of nanomachines and the same is true of bacteria,\u201d Akyildiz said. \u201cAnd so, the best bet for us is to look at bacteria behavior and learn how bacteria are communicating and use those natural solutions to develop solutions for future communication problems.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBacteria use chemical signals to communicate with one another through a process called quorum sensing, which allows a population of single-celled microbes to work like a multicellular organism. Originally discovered several decades ago in unusual bioluminescent marine bacteria, it is now believed that all bacteria \u201ctalk\u201d to one another with chemical signals.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMicrobiologists are beginning to learn the \u201clanguages\u201d bacteria speak and what activities are controlled by this cellular communication. Many disease-causing pathogenic bacteria use quorum sensing to turn on their toxins and other factors to use against a host. Potential therapeutics are currently being developed by some researchers that are designed to disrupt quorum sensing by infectious bacteria.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cA single pathogenic bacterium in your body is unlikely to kill you,\u201d said Hammer, a microbial geneticist. \u201cBut since they communicate, the entire group orchestrates this coordinated behavior using chemical communication and the end result is that they work as a group to kill their host. So can we use that same information in a positive way by harnessing and understanding the limits of the communication?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech researchers Hammer and Forest will focus on experimentation to better understand the elements of bacterial communication, and then work with the electrical and computer engineering experts on the team to translate their findings into a possible communication model for nanonetworks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhat can bacteria say and hear, and how do they communicate to one another? Information theory research will examine these issues to pave the way for this new networking paradigm,\u0022 said\u0026nbsp;Fekri, professor of electrical and computer engineering.\u0026nbsp;\u201cThis is really revolutionary research. No one has looked at these issues before. We are dealing with the big challenges. It\u2019s going to require a lot of talent and hard work to address them.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe project is expected to pave the way for research in nanoscale communication. The range of applications of nanonetworks is incredibly wide, from intra-body networks for health monitoring, cancer detection or drug delivery to chemical and biological attack prevention systems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt the end of four years, the team hopes to demonstrate the basic and fundamental underlying theories for communication of nanodevices. They also hope to develop a simulation tool for the public to use to see how machines can mimic bacteria communication, which will hopefully attract other researchers to get involved in investigating this area further.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cExisting paradigms for network protocols and algorithms do not apply anymore. This is beyond the frontiers of networking research,\u201d said Sivakumar. \u0026nbsp;\u201cIt\u2019s really something that could change things and no one has done this before.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA great strength of the Georgia Tech research team is its interdisciplinary nature.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019re excited to combine science and engineering as well as our respective tool sets, whether genetic engineering, genetic sensing or network communications theory to tackle this system-level problem\u2014this grand challenge in nanotechnology,\u201d said Forest, an expert in biomedical engineering.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"New Approach May Offer Disease Detection Capabilities"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are working on communication solutions for networks so futuristic they don\u2019t even exist yet.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team is investigating how to get devices a million times smaller than the length of an ant to communicate with one another to form nanonetworks. And they are using a different take on \u201ccellular\u201d communication\u2014namely how bacteria communicate with one another\u2014to find a solution.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Identifying communication solutions for networks so futuristic they don\u2019t even exist yet."}],"uid":"27281","created_gmt":"2011-10-19 16:27:37","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:10:30","author":"Lisa Grovenstein","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-10-19T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2011-10-19T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"71623":{"id":"71623","type":"image","title":"Nanotechnology Research","body":null,"created":"1449177396","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:16:36","changed":"1475894639","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:59","alt":"Nanotechnology Research","file":{"fid":"193545","name":"nano_lab.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/nano_lab.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/nano_lab.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2663873,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/nano_lab.jpg?itok=hUcPF0E4"}},"72080":{"id":"72080","type":"image","title":"Nanonetworks communication research team","body":null,"created":"1449177434","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:17:14","changed":"1475894649","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:09","alt":"Nanonetworks communication research team","file":{"fid":"193636","name":"dscn0152.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dscn0152_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dscn0152_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2585832,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/dscn0152_0.jpg?itok=f8OTvh3L"}}},"media_ids":["71623","72080"],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"149","name":"Nanotechnology and Nanoscience"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"14820","name":"Akyildiz"},{"id":"7077","name":"bacteria"},{"id":"12952","name":"Brian Hammer"},{"id":"14824","name":"cellular communication"},{"id":"12333","name":"Craig Forest"},{"id":"14821","name":"Fekri"},{"id":"14819","name":"nanocommunication"},{"id":"14823","name":"nanonetworks"},{"id":"431","name":"nanoscale"},{"id":"14818","name":"nanotechnogy"},{"id":"107","name":"Nanotechnology"},{"id":"171129","name":"Sivakumar"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["klipp@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}