Professor Sonia Contera explores the frontier of Nanotechnology and Biology in new book ‘Nano Comes to Life’
A new book authored by Green Templeton Fellow Professor Sonia Contera, Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Nanotechnology and Associate Professor of Biological Physics, explores the revolutionary field of research combining nanotechnology and biology. Nano Comes to Life: How Nanotechnology is Transforming Medicine and the Future of Biology, published by Princeton University Press, opens a window onto the world of the nanoscale where physics, cellular and molecular biology all meet to form the building blocks of life: proteins and DNA. The book explores how the evolving tools being developed at this scale will transform human health and longevity.
As a Professor of biological physics and a leading nanotech pioneer, Professor Contera writes with experience and insight on the evolving frontier of nanotechnology and its ability to manipulate life’s building blocks. Contera reveals how nanotechnology enables a new kind of multidisciplinary science as biology, material sciences, physics, mathematics, and engineering meet to further understand biology and to revolutionize medicine. This frontier will have a profound impact on human health and longevity, as nanoscale tools are being developed that can interact with and manipulate biology for a vast range of applications, such as targeting individual cancer cells, delivering drugs more effectively, fighting resistant bacteria, and engineering tissues and organs for research and transplantation.
Nano Comes to Life reveals how the incorporation of biology into the realm of physics facilitates a profound cultural shift that places the study of life within the study of the rules that govern the cosmos. The convergence of the sciences in biology in the quest for medical and technological breakthroughs, pushes us to consider our existence as both emerging from and entangled with the whole world from which our own biology evolved. As we face unprecedented planetary challenges, Contera proposes that this might be the most important role of the physics of life that emerges from scientific labs: to contribute to the creation of cultures that midwife our coming of age as technological species and to the collective construction of a path to the preservation of human life on Earth.
Professor Contera was founder, director and co-director of the Oxford Martin Institute of Nanoscience for Medicine at the Oxford Martin School from 2007 to 2015, and has recently become a the Chair of the Physics of Life external advisory board of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). As an expert in atomic force microscopy of biological systems, Contera has a special interest in the role of mechanics in biology; bridging scales and modulating transmission of information, including through mechanoelectrical coupling in subcellular structures, cells and tissues. Contera was a Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Nanotechnology 2014-2016 and in 2017 she was elected Chair of Scanning Probe Microscopy section of the Royal Microscopical Society. She is also the mother of two little children.
- More information about Professor Contera’s research
- Q&A with Professor Contera on her publisher’s website
- Order Nano Comes To Life
Alumni in Switzerland came together in Geneva on Swiss National Day for the first in-person gathering of our college`s Switzerland Alumni Group.
After the group’s inaugural online meeting earlier in the year, the gathering was a chance to finally put faces to names, reconnect over memories of Green Templeton and Oxford and hear where life has taken everyone since.
Conversation ranged from career paths and professional exchanges to life in Switzerland and ideas for the growing alumni group.
Josephine Agyeman-Duah (DPhil Women’s and Reproductive Health, 2018), Chair of the Alumni Group, said:
‘It was splendid to reconnect with GTC alumni from different periods and to celebrate Swiss National Day together in Geneva. Our first in-person gathering was a wonderful opportunity to strengthen connections and our GTC alumni community in Switzerland.’
The group is now looking to establish a committee and hopes to connect with other Oxford and Cambridge alumni groups in Switzerland.
#GreenTempletonCollege #OxfordAlumni #GTCAlumni #Oxford #Geneva #Switzerland
Happy International Cat Day! 🐾
It’s been quite the year for Vincent!
After several years of making the college his home, we are delighted to say that we have officially adopted him. A familiar and much-loved face around the college grounds, he has a special way of bringing smiles to everyone he meets.
We’re so proud to officially call him ours!
Happy International Cat Day, Vincent! 💚🐈⬛
✨ Come behind the scaffolding with us.
We were given rare access to the Radcliffe Observatory restoration project, climbing onto the roof to see the incredible conservation work taking place behind the scenes.
From spectacular views across Oxford to the Observatory`s intricate zodiac carvings, we discovered details that are normally hidden from view.
Join us as we explore one of Oxford`s most iconic landmarks!
Earlier this summer, we were delighted to welcome audiences to our inaugural Garden Play, with a series of sold-out performances of Shakespeare`s `As You Like It` set in our beautiful college grounds.
Our gardens became the Forest of Arden as students, staff, alumni and the wider Oxford community came together to enjoy open-air theatre in a truly unique setting. Even better, the production has received fantastic reviews from Oxford`s student press.
A huge thank you to everyone who performed in and supported this wonderful initiative.
These peaceful moments around college were captured by work experience student Izzie.
They celebrate the beauty of the college gardens and the simple joy of taking a closer look!
Thank you Izzie for sharing your perspective with us 🌸
