Biology has become a mainstream field of research, fostering interactions between scientists specialized in physics, technology, and mathematics. The complexity of biological systems is full of challenges that can only be elucidated with the development of multiple techniques dedicated to the characterization of biological transactions. These transactions involve molecular interactions, which in turn may trigger signals at the body level, hence defining multi-scale scientific problems. In addition to scientific challenges, modern questions of the life sciences are expected to stimulate innovations to fulfill the growing demand for personalized diagnostics. Micro- and nano-technologies offer new solutions to manipulate and sense single cells or molecules with exquisite precision. Their complementarity with respect to conventional molecular biology techniques, which enable to characterize biological compounds at the batch level, is well established, yet their impact in molecular/cellular biology practices were disappointing compared to initial anticipations. Starting from our own research at the frontiers of physics and biology, we will try to identify opportunities for future developments in micro- and nano-technologies for life sciences. We will then propose projects focused on single cell whole-genome analysis that have retained our attention.
Technologies for genomic and epigenomic analysis: a new frontier for micro- and nano-fluidics