The ability to manipulate the enormous information resources contained in DNA molecules for applications in information technology is one of the new great scientific challenges at the cross road of biology, information science and electrical engineering. This talk will review some basic properties of cell biology, and present a scenario that integrates biology with MOS nano-electronics for genomics and bio-medical applications. This scenario involves probing the electrical activity of biomolecules passing through a nanopore, in a semiconductor membrane. Among solid-state porous membranes the use of the single-atom thickness of graphene or novel 2D materials like MoS₂ are ideally suited for DNA, RNA or proteins sensing as they can scan molecules passing through a nanopore at high resolution.  Additionally, unlike most biological membranes, these new materials are electrically active, which can be exploited to manipulate in addition to sense biomolecules. A membrane designed as a quantum point contact FET will be presented as a viable device for electronically and optically sensing bio-molecules for applications in genomics and cancer detection