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 biomedical/clinical 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:

  • automation at micro-nanometer scales
  • microrobotic and nanorobotic manipulation
  • optical and electron microscopy
  • computer vision microscopy
  • robotic cell surgery
  • medical robotics
  • nano manufacturing
  • precision instrumentation
  • MEMS
  • microfluidics
  • biomedical micro devices
  • micro-nanofabrication
  • cell biology
  • disease diagnostics
  • cellular biophysics
  • automated instrumentation for biomedical and clinical use

Recent Events

AMNL presented at IEEE ICRA'13 in Karlsruhe, Germany. (05/2013)

Mark Cachia and Yuan Wei received NSERC Scholarships. (04/2012)

Y. Sun was elected Fellow of The Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC). (03/2013)

AMNL alumnus, Dr. Chris Moraes and Y. Sun attended the NSERC awards ceremony celebrating Canada's Top Natural Sciences and Engineering Researchers in Ottawa. (02/2013)

Y. Zheng presented at IEEE MEMS'13 in Taipei. (01/2013)

Y. Sun gave an invited seminar in Mechanical Engineering, Univ. of Minnesota. (12/2012)

AMNL recevied a 2013 Connaught Innovation Award from UofT. (12/2012)

Our alumnus, Dr. Keekyoung Kim has accepted an offer to start a faculty position at the Univ. of British Columbia - Okanagan. (11/2012)

Our alumnus, Prof. Xinyu Liu received CMC's Douglas R. Colton Medal for his research at AMNL. (10/2012)

Y. Sun attended the Technical Program Committee meeting of IEEE MEMS'13 in Kyoto, Japan. (10/2012)

Our alumnus, Dr. Chris Moraes received Canada's most prestigious postdoctoral fellowship, the Banting Fellowship. (09/2012)

Y. Sun gave an invited key-note presentation at 3M-Nano in Xi'an. (08/2012)

Y. Sun was invited to join the editorial board of IEEE ICRA as an Editor. (07/2012)

Event archives [more...]