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 (Acting Officer 2009, 7 - ) : Nano Biophotonics Chi-Yu Kuo (2006): Environmental Mechanics Kuo Kan Liang (2006): Protein Structure Kinetics Jung-Hsing Lin (2006): Biomolecular Dynamics Chun-Wei Pao (2009,10): Computational Nanomaterials

Adjunct Investigator Academician Academician Chien-Cheng Chang (Former Officer 2004,8 -2009, 6) Fang-Gang Tseng (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: Molecular Motors Simulations/Experiments.Kinetics of Ion Transport in Ion ChannelsAdvanced Diagnosis Technologies Ultrasonics, OpticsEnvironment Mechanics - Debris/granular Flow, CO2 ReductionGreen 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 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 ChannelRefined model: two kinds of cooperativityThere 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. PI: Kuo Kan Liang 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.

(.) is the Gamma function, U(.) is the step function, and r means envelopeThe Nakagami parameter m and the scaling parameter can be estimated byNakagami distribution PI: Chien-Cheng Chang Postdoc: Po-Hsiang Tsui 3

Ultrasound Nakagami imagingEnvelope imageSliding windowNakagami imagemw Using a sliding window to construct a parameter mapPo-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)FibroadenomasInvasive ductal carcinomaPatients come from Taiwan University HospitalIn vivo scan by Terason 2000At threshold = 0.64,Sensitivity: 88.6%Specificity: 74.3%Accuracy: 81.4%

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 1010 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 nanoslit-based microarray fabricated on a thin gold filmThe 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

5. Debris flow MechanicsIn 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

Improve 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-systemsExperiments 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

Efficient Heterocatalysis for Water-Splitting and CO2 Reduction Green and Efficient Conversion of CO2 to Methanol through Enzymatic SystemSolar lightnanostructures

Good Morning! I am Wei Pei-Kuen, the new group leader of the TCME. Our former group leader, Prof. Chang Chein Cheng has returned to the NTU, due to the four-years limit for officer on secondment. Our RCAS Director, Prof. Chang has assigned me to be the acting officer until he finds a suitable candidate for this mechanic group. The TCMES was established just five years ago. It borrows the space from Inst. of History and Philology. (It is here, near the Inst. Of Physics, where our nanobio group is located. We are now at here, the building, and our Theoretical group is here). We have about 140pings space. However, it is hard for us to do experiments related with biology and wet-chemistry in this space. Since the experiments are very important for the mechanic and engineering division, we hope to have a strong collaboration with nanobio-group to solve the experimental problems. That may be the reason why Dr. Chang assigned me to take the job. Currently, we have four PIs, They are me Kuo, Chi-Yi, Liang Kuo-Kan and Lin-Jung Hsing. And Five adjunct well-established professors, ,And we also have a new-hire, Dr. Pao CW. His case is in the process (wait for the approval of sinica review) The mission of this thematic center id to seeksCurrently, we have three main research areas of interest.(3), this is related to the energy. Our group members have the expertise in these areas and have contributed many papers during the past years. This the diagram of the molecular motor. Most people focused on the F1 structure. By adding ATP to the F1, researchers have found the rotation of the motor. Recently, Dr. Lin JH. calculated the structure of Fo. He found not only the F1 but the Fo can rotate . If there are proton ions flowing the a or a electric field applied in this direction, The Fo will rotate. We are very interested in hid results and will perform experiments to verify the calculations.In this collaobration work, ....Once, the theorical and experimental results are comfirmed, this will make a large impact on the biological area/.

For example, in Dr. Liangs lab they are learning how to apply patch-clamp method to analyze the kinetics of ion channels. They look forwad to combine patch-clamp experiment with time-resolved fluorescence or FT-IR measurements. But before that, they first studied how to analyze the kinetics of the ion channels from such data. They used Barium ion to block the potassium ion channel in order to slow down the transportation of poassium ions. They found that the data cannot be explained by conventional cooperative binding model. They tried to put in the missing piece form a more complete theory. This will be explained more thoroughly in Dr. Liangs talk.

*Recenlty, we have a typhoon called morakot attacked Taiwa on 8/8(our farther's day),and it caused e a lots of disasters to south Taiwan.So many people was missing and some places are flood even the typhoon was leaving now.The most disasters come from the Debris flow. If we can have a better understanding the phenomenon, we may make a better prediction and prevention of the debris flow. Dr. Kuo Chih-Yu is now working on this topics. But we think this is a large topics. If we can hire a senior, well-estalished PI in this area who can coordiante the project. THE RCAS can make more profound contribution for this Debris flow disaster. Ststistics from 2007-2009, 7. The publication numbers are ~20 for each year. A more significant increase in numbers and the corresponding authors in this year is expected.The second project is an energy-related topics. This idea is inspired by the patent application form CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY .. And proposed by Liang KK. The CeO2 here is a catalyst which can convert water and carbon dioxide into CH4 and CeO2. Using this process, The green gas CO2 can be reduced. However, This process needs a temperature at several hundred degrees. We plan to used plasmonic nanostructure to increase the coupling the solar light. Hope we can increase the reaction rate of the catalyst and reduce operation temperature. Our long-term gold is ..This will a team work, Liang KK will work on the catalsyst reaction. In fact, he has begun the study and got funding from NSC. I will work on..