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
  • cellular mechanobiology
  • disease diagnostics
  • cellular biophysics
  • automated instrumentation for biomedical and clinical use

Recent Events

M. Zhu's paper on stiffness mapping deep in tissue was published in PNAS. (02/2020)

T. Cui's paper on Fatigue of Graphene was published in Nature Materials. (01/2020)

AMNL won the UofT Connaught Innovation Award. (12/2019)

Y. Sun attended the new fellow induction ceremony of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC). (11/2019)

Y. Sun was elected Fellow of AIMBE (American Institute of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering). (10/2019)

W.K. Dou again received a Ph.D. fellowship from the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research Education Fund. Congrats! (08/2019)

Y. Sun gave a plenary talk at MARSS'2019 (Int. Conf. on Manipulation, Automation and Robotics at Small Scales). MARSS'2020 will be held in Toronto. (07/2019)

AMNL won the Michael R. Freeman Innovation Award together with Toronto General Hospital. (06/2019)

AMNL presented three papers at IEEE ICRA'19 in Montreal. C.S. Dai's paper won the Best Paper Award in Automation. (05/2019)

Y. Sun gave a plenary talk at IEEE NEMS'2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. (04/2019)

X. Wang's Science Robotics paper and M. Zhu's Nature Communications paper were accepted for publication. (03/2019)

NSERC CREATE Heathcare Robotics (HeRo) was granted by NSERC. (02/2019)

Lab rennovation, funded by Canada foundation for innovation (CFI), was completed. (01/2019)

Y. Sun was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). (12/2018)

AMNL presented three papers at MicroTAS'2018 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. (11/2018)

Y. Sun gave an invited seminar in the Schaefer School of Engineering & Science at Stevens Institute of Technology. (10/2018)

C.H. Cao headed to MIT for his postdoctoral research. AMNL team wishes him the best. (09/2018)

W.K. Dou received a pretigious Ph.D. fellowship from the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research Education Fund. (08/2018)

AMNL won the Best Application Paper Award at the International Conference on Manipulation, Automation and Robotics at Small Scales (MARSS) in Nagoya, Japan. (07/2018)

Y. Sun accepted the role of Editor for the Elsevier journal, Sensors & Acutators A: Physical. (06/2018)

AMNL presented three papers at IEEE International Conf. Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Brisbane, Australia. (05/2018)

J.H. Law won the Ontario Trillium Scholarship; G.Q. Shan won the Connaught International Scholarship; Y. Sun gave an invited seminar at the Univerity of Pennsylvania. (04/2018)

AMNL won the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering Best New Application Paper Award. (03/2018)

C. Cao won an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship. His paper in Science Advances was accepted for publication. (02/2018)

AMNL won the UofT Connaught Innovation Award; H.J. Liu won the UPenn postdoctoral fellowship. (01/2018)

Event archives [more...]