Andrea Armani
Assistant Professor
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering
Viterbi School of Engineering
For many emerging scholars, the evolution of an academic career leads to increasing specialization, a focus on a particular niche of research. Only rarely does one encounter someone with the ambition and breadth of expertise to pursue a career that expands connections across fields, bridging scholarship between the sciences. Such is the case with Andrea Armani, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, whose groundbreaking research in biological sensors has forged new connections between biology and chemical engineering.
“I would say that my career has been primarily curiosity driven,” notes Armani. “When I was in high school, I took biology and wanted to be a biologist. Then I took chemistry and wanted to be a chemist. It wasn’t until my senior year that my parents told me, ‘you can’t major in everything.’” For the time being at least, Armani settled with her final area of interest in high school, physics, receiving a bachelor’s degree in this field from the University of Chicago. After several inspiring semesters under the guidance of her professors, Armani discovered her passion for research. She rotated between several labs, first examining polymer thin films, and later moving on to laser optics. It was this research that led her to Caltech for graduate studies.
Armani’s curiosity blossomed at Caltech. Here she revisited her high school aspirations, pursuing research at the intersection between biology, chemistry and physics. “When I arrived at grad school I realized that there are people out there that do everything, and it’s okay to do everything. You just have to work harder. So I worked harder.”
In order to undertake such ambitious research, Armani focused her efforts on mastering the research skills and terminology of the two neighboring fields of scientific inquiry, a truly daunting task for anyone juggling the pressures of an advanced academic degree. In order to bridge the gap, Armani approached the big picture. “It was essentially a question of mastering the nomenclature of the fields. If you take a step back and look at how they are modeling these problems, they all rely on the same principles, but they use different names; all of the fundamental concepts are the same.”
Armani combined her expertise in physics and biology for doctoral research on biosensors. Her project entailed the creation of a microsensor that could detect particles in a variety of environments, with potential implications for diagnosis and preventative uses in the health field. “Pursuing multiple fields simultaneously was a lot harder at some points, but overall it made it a lot easier to do the research I was interested in; if I didn’t understand the biological aspects, then I could not have made the sensor function.” With a generous post-doctoral fellowship at Caltech in biology and chemical engineering, Armani was able to develop a unique interdisciplinary project that refined her biosensors through the study of surface chemistry methods and fluid flow dynamics. In 2008, Armani joined USC and has since laid the groundwork for a host of innovative research in this emerging field.
Armani’s lab centers its research on the bridging of biological science and chemical engineering in its development of sensors capable of detecting diseases and other micro particles. Her lab is divided into two groups, one focused on the development of optical devices, the other on testing these devices. The emergence of optical, or light-based computation (as opposed to electromagnetic in current computer systems) is at the forefront of the new wave, so to speak, of processing both in sensors and in computer systems. Armani’s research has already received an Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award to develop an interferometric wave guide sensor, a technology that has in the past assisted in such large-scale projects as accurately measuring the earth’s rotation. By combining lab research in optical chips, Armani is in the process of developing a low-loss waveguide that reduces the power loss of the device, allowing it to run efficiently and with less power. “All of these projects feed into each other,” observes Armani, “the creation of a low-loss wave guide on an optical chip is central to developing an optical device in a biosensing application.”
In a typical engineering lab, this fundamental research would easily qualify as a full load, but not for Armani. Her second lab, housed next door to the optics room, has focused on the direct applied science of these microsensors, actually putting them to use in real-world scenarios. For this research, Armani benefits directly from USC’s commitment to bridging scientific discovery between fields. One of USC’s newest initiatives, the Health Sciences and Technology at USC, or HST@USC, provides Armani with the resources and contacts within the biological sciences to maintain an ambitious interdisciplinary lab.
With the help of HST@USC, Armani is now able to expand her lab research into real-world testing on cell lines and clinical samples that would otherwise be unavailable to an engineer. With these facilities, the practical implications for Armani’s sensors are far-reaching. For public health, sensors could be used to monitor water and food supplies for bacterial contamination, an area particularly beneficial to areas where infrastructures are less developed. For personal healthcare, Armani’s sensors could be used to monitor individuals on the micro level, detecting bacterial or viral infections long before they pose a threat, and leading to more accurate diagnosis of existing diseases or infections.
Armani’s ambitious lab has already caught the attention of the scientific community. A little over a year into her research here at USC, Armani has been recognized by the prestigious 2009 Technology Review’s top innovators under the age of 35. With an enduring work ethic and commitment to innovation, such an award comes as a welcome introduction to the USC community; we can only expect many more to come.
If you have questions or comments, contact the Graduate Student in Residence
at:
gsir@usc.edu
