Thematic Center for Mechanics and Engineering Sciences (TCMES)

The TCMES is formally established in August, 2004. It locats on the third floor of the Institute of History and Philology building (~140 pings). This group currently consists of five PIs, four adjunct professors.

Principle Investigator and Expertise Pei-Kuen Wei 魏培坤 (Acting Officer 2009, 7 - ) : Nano Biophotonics Chi-Yu Kuo 郭志禹 (2006): Environmental Mechanics Kuo Kan Liang 梁國淦 (2006): Protein Structure Kinetics Jung-Hsing Lin 林榮信 (2006): Biomolecular Dynamics Chun-Wei Pao 鮑淳偉 (2009,10): Computational Nanomaterials

Adjunct Investigator Academician 林聖賢 Academician 黃 鍔 Chien-Cheng Chang 張建成 (Former Officer 2004,8 -2009, 6) Fang-Gang Tseng 曾繁根 (NCHU)

The Mission of TCMES :1. Study the Mechanics of Important Biological and Environmental Problems.2. Develop Advanced Technologies for Biomedicine and Green-Energy

Current Research Focus: (1)Molecular Motors – Simulations/Experiments.(2)Kinetics of Ion Transport in Ion Channels(3)Advanced Diagnosis Technologies – Ultrasonics, Optics(4)Environment Mechanics - Debris/granular Flow, CO2

Reduction(5)Green Energy - Efficiency Enhancement of LED/Solar

Cells.

1. Dynamics of Molecular Motors:The molecular motor is the most efficient energy converting nanomachine. Understanding its mechanics help in realizing the biological system and advanced design for energy-saving machines.

PI: Jung-Hsing Lin 林榮信

Biophysical Journal, Volume 98, Issue 6, 1009-1017, 17 March 2010doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2009.11.025

2. Concerted Motion of Ions in K+ Inward-Rectifying Ion Channel

Refined model: two kinds of cooperativity• There are two sources of cooperativity:

• Cooperative entrance into the channel (equivalent to cooperative binding)

• Cooperative exit of ion (new)• Introduce a new concept: Hill slope, to understand the

effects.

-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

L10log

R

pmor

PI: Kuo Kan Liang 梁國淦

For a specific ion channel, we are often interested in knowing how it is closed and opened and its particular structural properties enabling the fast passage of ions and causing its selectivity among ions.

In our recent work, we slowed down the ion motion in an inward potassium ion channel (K+) by blocking the selectivity filter of the channel with Ba2+ ion. Thus only the ion transport in the inner vestibule but not the selectivity filter is observed. The kinetics isnot successfully described by conventional cooperative binding model. We propose an improved kinetics model in which the concerted motion of the ions in the channel has comparable contribution as the binding process.

Γ(.) is the Gamma function, U(.) is the step function, and r means envelope

The Nakagami parameter m and the scaling parameter Ω can be estimated by

)()exp()(

2)( 2

12

rUrm

m

rmrf m

mm

222

22

)]([

)]([

RERE

REm

)( 2RE

Nakagami distribution

PI: Chien-Cheng Chang 張建成Postdoc: Po-Hsiang Tsui

3 中研院 主題計畫 “新世代超音波乳癌診斷技術”

Ultrasound Nakagami imaging

Envelope image

Sliding window

Nakagami image

mw

Using a sliding window to construct a parameter map

•Po-Hsiang Tsui, Yin-Yin Liao, Chien-Cheng Chang, Wen-Hung Kuo, King-Jen Chang, and Chih-Kuang Yeh, “Classification of benign and malignant breast tumors by two-dimensional analysis based on contour description and scatterer characterization,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 513-522, 2010. (SCI/EI)

Breast Cancer Research(Thematic Research Program: AS-98-TP-A02)

Fibroadenomas Invasive ductal carcinoma

5 mm

Patients come from Taiwan University HospitalIn vivo scan by Terason 2000

1-Specificity

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

Sen

sitiv

ity

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

At threshold = 0.64,Sensitivity: 88.6%Specificity: 74.3%Accuracy: 81.4%

 Nakagami image

Pathology  Total

Malignant Benign

0.64 31 (TP) 9 (FP) 40

0.64 4 (FN) 26 (TN) 30

Total 35 35 70

4. Development and Applications of Label-Free Microarray We study label-free microarrays made from gold nanoslits and nanoholes. The surface plasmon resonances on the microarray surface were detected and compared. Our calculation and measurement results indicate that the nanoslit array has an intensity sensitivity much higher than the nanohole array. In addition, the sensitivity is increased as the slit width decreases. For 35 nm slit width, the intensity sensitivity reaches to ~ 4000 %/RIU. Using the intensity changes, we successfully demonstrated a 10×10 microarray for real-time measurements of antigen-antibody and DNA-DNA interactions.

Publications: Opt. Express 2009, 17:23104-23113; Small (accepted, 2010)Funding Source: NSC 98-3112-B-001-010Patent Application: US-2009-0181857-A1Technology: N/A

(a) A nanoslit-based microarray fabricated on a thin gold film(b) The surface plasmon resonances result in optical transmission changes and are used for real-time detection of

surface molecular interactions

(a) (b)

PI, Pei-Kuen Wei 魏培坤

5. Debris flow Mechanics

In recent years, we witnessed catastrophic landslide events caused by the earthquakes and the extreme weather conditions. Using the shallow-water model with the general topography extension, we review the three important real landslides occurring in Taiwan happened in the past decades: the Tsaoling, Jiufenershan landslides in 1999 and the Shiaolin landslide in 2009.

Dr. Kuo Chih-Yu is now working on this topics, collaborated with PIs inside and outside the Sinica campus.

Statistics: 2009,1 -2010,6 Publications: 4+3+7+12 +7(Thematic project) = 33

Important Research Achievements1. Public TV Report : Chih-Yu Kuo, Review the Shiaoling Landslide Event (2010)2. “Laser Focus World”, 2009 Accelerated Ingenuity: Pei-Kuen Wei, Giant Birefringence Induced by Plasmonic Nanoslit Arrays,” Appl. Phys. Lett. (2009). 3. Journal Cover IllustrationJung-Hsing Lin, Biophysical Journal (Molecular motor, 2010)Chien-Cheng Chang, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine (Ultrasound and statistical parametric images,2009)4. Sinica Significant ResearchesPei-Kuen Wei, Label-Free Microarray (2010)Pei-Kuen Wei, Plasmonics Enhanced OLED (2009), APL top 20 download paper

Research Plans of The TCMES

(1)(1)Improve Current ResearchImprove Current Research

CalculationsDevelop efficient and versatile theoretical and numerical methods for bridging scales from nano- or molecular scales to global/macroscopic scales to help design micro-scale composite materials that have unusual thermal, mechanical and optical properties, or understand structures of proteins and related bio-systems

Experiments Bio-molecular dynamics, ultra-fast spectroscopy, fluid mechanics,

advanced materials, biomedical ultrasound, debris/granular flow experiments will be carried out to check/confirm theoretical predictions or to fabricate useful device/materials so as to achieve the ultimate goals of materials design on the nano- and molecular scales, of understanding structures of proteins and related bio-systems, and of prediction of debris/granular flow.

The long-term goal is to directly couple solar power to CO2 reduction and water-splitting.

This work shows an interdisciplinary collaborations (Mechanics, Optics, Bio, Materials) to solve an important environmental issue

(2) Open New Projects for Energy-Related Mechanics

a.Efficient Heterocatalysis for Water-Splitting and CO2 Reductionb. Green and Efficient Conversion of CO2 to Methanol through Enzymatic System

Solar light

nanostructures