The Advanced Micro and Nanosystems Laboratory (AMNL), founded in 2004, is affiliated with Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Inst. of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, and Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. With a unifying theme centered upon the development and application of novel micro/nano devices and systems, AMNL’s research ranges from fundamental science, to applied biotechnology, to emerging engineering issues. Many of our present research projects involve the manipulation and characterization of biological cells and nanoscaled materials.

The actively pursued areas are micro-nano device design and fabrication (MEMS sensors and actuators, bioMEMS, and NEMS); microrobotic manipulation of biological cells; microstructure control; cellular mechanobiology; and nanorobotic manipulation of nanomaterials and biomolecules. Micro, nano, and bio are integrative components of our research, in which technological innovations are made in MEMS, nanotechnology, micro-nano-robotics, and biomechanics to better understand basic life sciences problems, facilitate biological/biomedical studies, and enable us to tackle fundamental and applied biological/biomedical and emerging engineering problems.

Taking a multidisciplinary approach in research, our dynamic team consists of researchers from various backgrounds in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and biomedical engineering. We work with an exciting network of clinician scientists, biologists, nanomaterial scientists, and many industries inside and outside Canada.

Key Words: precision instrumentation; automation at micro-nanometer scales; micro and nano devices; microrobotic and nanorobotic manipuilation; optical and electron microscopy; nano manufacturing; MEMS; microfluidics; biomedical micro devices; microfabrication; cell biology; disease diagnostics; automated bioinstrumentation for biomedical and clinical use.

Recent Events

Y. Sun will give an invited talk in the Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University at Buffalo. (02/2012)

Y. Sun gave an invited talk at the University of Western Ontario. (01/2012)

AMNL won UofT's Connaught Innovation Award. (12/2011)

Our robotic ICSI technology created the first human fertilization. More patient trials are under way. (11/2011)

AMNL presented three papers at MicroTAS'11 in Seattle. (10/2011)

Y. Sun gave an invited semi-plenary talk in the ‘50 years of vision symposium’ at IEEE IROS'11 in San Francisco. (9/2011)

AMNL won the Best Application Paper Award at the 3M-Nano International Conference in Changchun, China. (8/2011)

AMNL's paper on nanowire biosensors was accepted for publication by ACS Nano. (7/2011)

AMNL presented five papers at Transducers'11 in Beijing. (6/2011)

AMNL won the Best Automation Paper Award at IEEE ICRA'11. (5/2011)

Y. Sun gave invited talks at Harvard University and at NY LRIG in Albany, New York. (4/2011)

Y. Sun gave two invited talks at the U. of Washington in Seattle. (03/2011)

Event archives [more...]