Yonsei Advanced Science Institute

The ability to sense and manipulate the state of biological systems has been extensively advanced during the past decade with the help of recent developments in physical tools. Unlike standard genetic and pharmacological perturbation techniques—knockdown, overexpression, small molecule inhibition—that provide a basic on/off switching capability, these physical tools provide the capacity to control the spatial, temporal, and mechanical properties of the biological targets.

MNTs have the potential to be utilized in many exciting applications across diverse biological systems spanning from fundamental biology investigations of spatial and mechanical signaling dynamics at the single-cell and systems levels to in vivo therapeutic applications.