Joseph Wang, director of the Center for Bioelectronics and
Biosensors at the Biodesign Institute at ASU, led a team effort
that successfully merged work in the fields of biosensors,
electronics, and nanotechnology to fashion nanocrystals that can
act as “DNA biosensors?by electronically recognizing subtle
mutations in the DNA. This creates enormous potential for
applications such as the diagnosis and treatment of genetic
diseases, detection of infectious agents and reliable forensic
analysis. Wang, who recently was recruited to the Biodesign
Institute and serves a joint appointment as professor in the
chemical and materials department at the Ira A. Fulton School of
Engineering and the Department of Chemistry, is a renowned
expert in nanomaterial-based biosensors that operate at the
scale of a thousand times smaller than the width of a human
hair. He wrote 660 papers and has 12 patents to his credit,
including involvement in the development of the first
noninvasive biosensor for diabetes, the FDA approved Gluc