National Center for Design of
Biomimetic Nanoconductors
David LaVan
Contact:
David LaVan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Yale University. His research relevant to the Center has focused on the development and characterization of new materials and devices for microsystems, and the development of in vivo medical devices and technologies.
Research
David LaVan has worked on numerous projects characterizing MEMS materials and devices (LaVan and Buchheit 1999; LaVan and Buchheit 2000; LaVan, Hohlfelder et al. 2000; Sullivan, Friedmann et al. 2001; Buchheit, LaVan et al. 2002; Lavan, Boyce et al. 2003) including early work in the development of nanoporous silica films (Lu, Fan et al. 2000). Recently, he has been working on methods to microfabricate conductive polymer thin films to easily build complex structures (LaVan, George et al. 2003) and has worked on several projects to characterize the in vivo response of silicon devices, thin film materials, and conductive polymer microdevices (George, Lyckman et al. 2005; LaVan, Padera et al. 2005). He has edited three proceedings on Micro- and Nano-systems (LaVan, Ayon et al. 2003; LaVan, Ayon et al. 2003; LaVan, Ayon et al. 2004; LaVan, Mcnie et al. 2005) and has authored invited reviews on the use of micro- and nano- technologies for medical applications in Nature Biotechnology and Nature Reviews (LaVan, Lynn et al. 2002; LaVan, McGuire et al. 2003).
His laboratory is currently working on novel functionalization schemes for conductive as well as microfluidics based approaches to parallel synthesis of biopolymers (Xiang and LaVan 2005). He was recently awarded a grant from the Keck foundation to develop novel devices (utilizing modified conductive polymers and photosynthetic organisms) to convert sunlight directly into electricity (convert high energy photons into electrons).
He has worked on projects to evaluate and develop new materials for tissue engineering (Fuchs Julie, Kaviani et al. 2004), for targeted drug delivery using functionalized nanoparticles (Farokhzad, Jon et al. 2004), and the development of electromagnetic needles with sub-micron pole tips to manipulate magnetic nanoparticles (Matthews, LaVan et al. 2004).
LaVan is also the Director of the Engineering Design Program at Yale, and as such is familiar with current thinking on the development of technology, the use and role of codes and standards in the development of products, and the design and development process. He has spoken at the House Rayburn Building on the future of nanotechnology, and was recently selected to participate in a National Academy group to address the future of research in the U.S. LaVan was the chair of the group at the Keck nanofutures symposium at Irvine that initially discussed the as a serious possibility. He will provide overall design oversight for biobattery design for our Center.
Related Publications
LaVan, D.A. and Cha, J.N. (2006), "Approaches for biological and biomimetic energy conversion," PNAS, 103/14, 5251-5255.
Buchheit, T. E., D. A. LaVan, et al. (2002). "Microstructural and Mechanical Properties Investigation of Electrodeposited and Annealed LIGA Nickel Structures." Metallurgical & Materials Transactions A 33A(3): 539-554.
LaVan, D. A., A. Ayon, et al. (2003). Micro- and Nanosystems. Warrendale, PA, Materials Research Society.
LaVan, D. A., A. A. Ayon, et al. (2003). Nano- and Microelectromechanical Systems (NEMS and MEMS) and Molecular Machines. Warrendale, PA, Materials Research Society.
LaVan, D. A., A. A. Ayon, et al. (2004). Micro- and Nanosystems. Warrendale, PA, Materials Research Society.
Lavan, D. A., B. L. Boyce, et al. (2003). "Size and frequency of defects in silicon MEMS." International Journal of Damage Mechanics 12(4): 357-363.
LaVan, D. A. and T. E. Buchheit (1999). "Strength of polysilicon for MEMS devices." Proceedings of SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering 3880(MEMS Reliability for Critical and Space Applications): 40-44.
LaVan, D. A. and T. E. Buchheit (2000). "Testing of critical features of polysilicon MEMS." Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings 605(Materials Science of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Devices II): 19-24.
LaVan, D. A., P. M. George, et al. (2003). "Simple, three-dimensional microfabrication of electrodeposited structures." Angewandte Chemie, International Edition 42(11): 1262-1265.
LaVan, D. A., R. J. Hohlfelder, et al. (2000). "Tensile properties of amorphous diamond films." Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings 594(Thin Films--Stresses and Mechanical Properties VIII): 295-300.
LaVan, D. A., D. M. Lynn, et al. (2002). "Moving smaller in drug discovery and delivery." Nature reviews. Drug discovery 1(1): 77-84.
LaVan, D. A., T. McGuire, et al. (2003). "Small-scale systems for in vivo drug delivery." Nature Biotechnology 21(10): 1184-1191.
LaVan, D. A., M. Mcnie, et al. (2005). Micro- and Nanosystems - Materials and Devices. Warrendale, PA, Materials Research Society.
LaVan, D. A., R. F. Padera, et al. (2005). "In vivo evaluation of tetrahedral amorphous carbon." Biomaterials 26(5): 465-473.
Matthews, B. D., D. A. LaVan, et al. (2004). "Electromagnetic needles with submicron pole tip radii for nanomanipulation of biomolecules and living cells." Applied Physics Letters 85(14): 2968-2970.