Lux Capital’s Josh Wolfe to give opening Keynote Address, April 19, 8:30 a.m.

April 4, 2005

Josh Wolfe

Josh Wolfe is a co-founder and Managing Director of Lux Capital focusing on investments in Nanotechnology. Before forming Lux Capital, he worked in Salomon Smith Barney's Investment Banking group, where his experience included a $4 billion hotel merger, and a defense against an unsolicited LBO. Josh has also worked in capital markets while at Merrill Lynch on its Financial Futures & Options/Government Strategy desk and at Prudential Securities in its Municipal Finance department.

Prior to venturing into the financial world, Josh conducted and published cutting edge AIDS/immunopathology research in Cell Vision and The Journal of Leukocyte Biology, leading medical/immunology journals. Josh graduated with distinction from Cornell University with a B.S. in Economics and Finance. He has been an invited guest speaker, lecturer and panelist on nanotechnology to Harvard, Yale, Wharton, Columbia, Cornell, Merrill Lynch, Capitol Hill, government labs, and officials in France, Canada, UK, Spain and Germany. Josh is a a co-founder of The NanoBusiness Alliance, a Senior Associate of the Foresight Institute for Nanotechnology, the Coordinator for the Institute of Molecular Manufacturing's Prize in Computational Nanotechnology, and a member of the Cognitive Science Society. Josh is author of the acclaimed "Nanotech Report" and Editor of Forbes' new publication, the "Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report."

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Funds for nanotechnology

March 29, 2005

The Pittsburgh Technology Council was awarded $200,000 in state funds to establish the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center. The center initially will be housed at the Tech Council. It will bring together local companies, including Alcoa, PPG, Bayer MaterialScience and U.S. Steel, to partner with universities including Carnegie Mellon and Penn State to develop and commercialize nanotechnology products. The Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority granted the funds.

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Nanotechnology conference no small thing

March 15, 2005

Pittsburgh will host the state's third annual attempt to make something big of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is research and technology development at the atomic, molecular or macromolecular levels. The technology involves creating and manipulating materials so small that 100,000 of them are no bigger than the width of a human hair.

Dennis Yablonsky, the state's secretary for community and economic development, announced yesterday that the "Business of Nano: Pennsylvania Nanotechnology Conference 2005" would be held April 18 to 20 at the Westin Convention Center Hotel, Downtown. Previous conferences were held in Philadelphia and State College.

The hope is that nanotech will revolutionize everything from biopharmaceuticals and therapeutics to agriculture and energy, and that Pennsylvania will be a leader in the technology. The state has invested more than $42 million to build out facilities and jump-start nanotech programs.

"Nanotechnology is seen as the next big thing in the sciences," said Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, who is a conference organizer.

"This conference is both an effort to explain nanotechnology and to try [to] make sure that Pennsylvania gets a piece of that next big thing."

Conference topics will range from electronics to instrumentation. One session will consider novel strategies being used in Europe and Asia to develop nanotechnology. Another will help nanotech companies fight their way through a "patent thicket" that makes it difficult to launch a product.

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RENDELL ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES PENNSYLVANIA NANOTECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE 2005

March 14, 2005

HARRISBURG: Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Yablonsky today announced that The Business of Nano: Pennsylvania Nanotechnology Conference 2005 will be held April 18 – 20 at the Westin Convention Center Hotel in Pittsburgh.

“Through Pennsylvania’s world-class corporations, universities and federal laboratories, the Commonwealth is quickly becoming a national leader in the nanotech revolution,” said Secretary Yablonsky. “The 2005 Business of Nanotechnology Conference is just one example of how the Commonwealth is positioning itself to be a key player in this wave of development that promises to create a new generation of research, industry and jobs for Pennsylvanians.”

The conference represents the third major gathering on nanotechnology sponsored by the Commonwealth. Through formal presentations, displays, detailed documentation and informal meetings, participants will have the opportunity to learn about the technology, expand business opportunities, and make new contacts. Conference topics will include nanotechnology manufacturing and processing, electronics, semi-conductors and instrumentation. Panel discussions will cover topics regarding emerging nanotech strategies, capitalization and international nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology involves research and technology development at the atomic, molecular or macromolecular levels. Researchers work to develop new technologies in industries such as biopharmaceuticals, therapeutics, advanced materials, agriculture, chemicals, electronics, energy, defense and transportation.

To demonstrate its leadership and commitment to the emerging nanotechnology industry, the Commonwealth created the Pennsylvania Initiative for Nanotechnology (PIN). With over $42 million in support to build out facilities and jump-start nanotechnology related programs, this investment has directly leveraged over $70 million in private, university and federal awards for a grand total of $112 million in investments.

These investments will bring the growth of new nanotech businesses, research and hi-tech, high-paying jobs to the Commonwealth. This initiative leverages Pennsylvania’s clusters of research, corporate and economic assets and builds upon substantial groundwork already in place.

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Pitt Researcher, Colleagues Create Self-Assembling Nanoparticle/Polymer Mixtures

New findings represent significant advance toward manufacture of nanodevices, researchers announce in Nature

March 3, 2005

A University of Pittsburgh researcher and her colleagues announced today in the journal Nature that they have created self-assembling mixtures of nanoparticles and polymer layers that spontaneously assume different orientations. Their findings have applications in such areas as chemical sensing, data storage, and photonic materials.

In a paper titled “Self-Directed Self-Assembly of Nanoparticle/Copolymer Mixtures,” Anna Balazs, Robert Von der Luft Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering in Pitt’s School of Engineering and a researcher in Pitt’s Institute for NanoScience and Engineering, Thomas Russell of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and their colleagues described a method with significant advantages over previous research.

While self-assembling processes are common in biological systems, such multiple-step processes are difficult to engineer synthetically. Previous research required intervention at each step of the process, but Balazs and her colleagues created a two-step process that only requires one intervention.

“What is unique about this study is that it has two interlocking self-assembling steps,” said Balazs. “This is one-stop shopping.”

The researchers began with thin films of copolymers—two types of polymer joined together—spread onto a surface. When equal amounts of each polymer are present, the copolymers arrange themselves into layers. If one polymer has an affinity for the surface the film is on, the layers will run parallel to the surface (horizontally); if neither of them “likes” that substrate, the layers will be vertical.

Then, to a horizontally layered copolymer film, the researchers added particles coated in a substance the polymers would not like. They found that the copolymer chains pushed the particles out to the edges of the film, essentially creating a new surface that was now unattractive to the polymers. Simultaneously, this new surface caused the horizontal polymer layers to change their orientation and become vertical.

This method of a self-assembling, interlocking two-step process provides remarkable control and flexibility over the fabrication of nanostructured materials. “The fact that you can put these chains and particles tens of nanometers apart and they assemble themselves will enable the next generation of nanoscale devices,” said Balazs.

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the NSF Collaborative Research in Chemistry Program, the NSF Career Award, the Army Research Office through a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, and the Max Kade Foundation.

Pitt’s Institute of NanoScience and Engineering is an integrated, multidisciplinary organization that brings coherence to the University’s research efforts and resources in the fields of nanoscale science and engineering.

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NanoHorizons™ Awarded Patent on QuickMass™

Invention dramatically extends MALDI Mass Spectrometer performance; enables MALDI MS small molecule analysis and high-throughput screening

February 9, 2005

NanoHorizons™, Inc., an emerging leader in applied nanoscale materials and solutions, announced today that it has been awarded a patent covering the company's deposited thin-film system for high-throughput small-molecule mass spectrometry. QuickMass™-enhanced targets enable MALDI mass spectrometers to be used for accurate and convenient small molecule analysis using matrix-less and thin-layer matrix test techniques.

"In applications where the mass range limits of MALDI mass spectrometers have forced analytic chemists to use slower and costlier analytic protocols, QuickMass-enhanced targets enable a leap in productivity and capability," said Dr. Stephen Fonash, founder of NanoHorizons. "Tens of millions of compounds are analyzed annually -- QuickMass-enhanced targets can rapidly impact a research lab or pharmaceutical company's bottom line and time-to-market."

MALDI is currently the primary mass spectrometry technique for large molecule analysis, operating effectively in the 1,000 to 180,000 amu range.  Prior to the advent of QuickMass, small molecule analysis could not be reliably performed using these laser-desorption-based mass spectrometers. Instead, small molecules could only be analyzed using slower and costlier Liquid Chromatography/Ion Electrospray analysis.

QuickMass-enhanced targets utilize NanoHorizons' patented nanoscale non-porous germanium layer to desorb the laser energy of the MALDI instrument, avoiding the use of a matrix and thereby allowing the acquisition of a clear spectrum below 1,000 amu.  Using QuickMass+MALDI creates an 80% improvement in the time it takes researchers to get results. This translates into significant time and cost reductions for pharmaceutical development, ADME (Administration, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion) testing, biomarker, proteomics, bio/chemical hazard, environmental testing and numerous other applications.

QuickMass-enhanced targets are intended to be used once and discarded or stored for archival purposes or further analysis at a later date.  They require no special handling and can be stored "on the shelf" at room temperature indefinitely without degradation. Other notable attempts to enable "matrix-less MALDI" for small molecule analysis have relied on the use of porous silicon -- which has to date resulted in targets that demand complex cleaning, storage, handling and sample preparation procedures and are easily contaminated.

"Single use targets are rapidly gaining popularity with high-volume users of MALDI instruments. Given the clear performance advantages of QuickMass, we believe all disposable targets should be QuickMass-enhanced." said Dr. Dan Hayes, co-founder of NanoHorizons and co-inventor of the QuickMass technology. "QuickMass-enhanced MALDI mass spectrometry will enable researchers to extend the useful range of their instruments and significantly speed up their discovery process, using existing equipment while avoiding complex handling, storage, cleaning, and anti-contamination procedures."

QuickMass is already in use by Kratos Analytical, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shimadzu Corporation and world leader in mass spectrometry. Questions regarding QuickMass and the availability of QuickMass-enhanced targets for additional brands and models of mass spectrometers can be answered by contacting NanoHorizons directly. For more information, please visit www.nanohorizons.com.

About NanoHorizons, Inc.
NanoHorizons, Inc. was founded in 2002 by Dr. Stephen Fonash, founder and Director of the Penn State Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization. The company focuses on nanotechnology applications in the drug discovery, microelectronics, consumer products and health care industries and has licensed a comprehensive portfolio of nanotechnology Intellectual Property from the Penn State Research Foundation. Its research and development team continuously produces additional real-life solutions using nanotechnology in applied materials science.

NanoHorizons' new product and application introductions include: QuickMass™, which addresses the need for more cost effective pharmaceutical research and increased drug discovery capacity; nano-materials-based sensors for applications such as environmental control, respiration monitors and medical diagnostics; and most recently low-cost, polymer process-compatible, noble-metal nanoparticles. For more information, please visit www.nanohorizons.com. 

Contacts:
Nicolas A. Boillot
Hart-Boillot, LLC
781-893-0053
nboillot@hartboillot.com

Dan Hayes, PhD.
NanoHorizons, Inc.
(814) 861-9909
dhayes@nanohorizons.com

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UAlbany College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering Awards First Ph.D. Degrees in Nanoscale Science


December 16, 2004

The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany - State University of New York, the first college devoted to the study of nanoscale scientific concepts, today announced that it has awarded the world's first Ph.D. degrees in nanoscience. Drs. Spyridon Skordas and Wanxue Zeng received their degrees during the UAlbany December Graduation Ceremony.

Nanotechnology is a cross-disciplinary scientific platform that involves manipulating matter at the atomic scale and holds great promise for innovation in such fields as chip making, fuel cell development, drug delivery and sensor technology. Skordas's Ph.D. dissertation examined metal organic chemical vapor deposition of aluminum oxide ultra-thin films for advanced transistor applications. Zeng explored plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition of atomically controlled refractory thin films. Both dissertations target applications in nanoscale devices for emerging generations of computer nanochips.

"It is very exciting to bestow this new doctoral degree on these very talented scientists," said UAlbany Interim President John R. Ryan. "The University is proud to be a leader in pioneering this academic field and believes that Spyridon Skordas and Wanxue Zeng will become leaders as well in this expanding discipline."

"Spyridon Skordas and Wanxue Zeng have made history as the first ever Doctors of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Their achievements not only make us proud as educators, but herald a sea change in scientific academic research," said Alain Kaloyeros, Ph.D., Vice President of CNSE. "I feel particularly privileged to have served as their research advisor and chair of their doctoral thesis committees. We're extremely pleased to have been able to position CNSE on the forefront of the nanotech revolution and to have had the honor of guiding two such talented scientists."

CNSE is the first institution to award Ph.D. degrees in nanoscale science and engineering and Skordas and Zeng will be the first two Ph.D.s in the world to receive a Ph.D. from a college devoted exclusively to the study of nanoscale scientific concepts. Though Ph.D. degrees focusing on nanotechnology have been available at the University of Washington since 2000, such degrees have been tied to other science disciplines. CNSE officially opened its doors in fall 2004, and Skordas and Zeng embarked on their Ph.D. studies first at the School of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at UAlbany, which was established in 2001 at the Albany NanoTech complex.

Upon graduation, Skordas has assumed the position of optical lithography track process engineer at the IBM 300mm nanochip fabrication facility in East Fishkill, NY. Zeng has accepted at post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Eric Eisenbraun, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Nanoscience at CNSE.

The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at the University at Albany-SUNY offers the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and Masters of Sciences (M.S.) in selected science and engineering tracks pertaining to the nanoelectronic, optoelectronic, optical, nano/micro-electro-mechanical, nano/micro-opto-electro-mechanical, energy, and nanobiological fields. Multiple student entry channels are designed to accommodate students from undergraduate and graduate educational background in physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, and electrical, mechanical, chemical, and biochemical engineering. For more information about CNSE, visit the CNSE website at http://cnse.albany.edu.

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Funding To Support Nano Cluster Devices’ Research


December 15, 2004

One million dollars in government research funding has been granted to Christchurch-based high-tech firm Nano Cluster Devices (NCD). “This is another big step forward in the development of Nano Cluster Device’s technology. This funding will allow important new work on the characterisation of our nanowire-based devices,” said Dr Simon Brown, NCD’s Executive Director of Science and Technology. Nano Cluster Devices is working to commercialise its world-class research in nanotechnology. The company has developed innovative techniques to make nanowires – tiny electrical wires – that can be used in products and devices up to 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

“The NCD techniques, which use nano cluster deposition, are radically different from how other researchers around the world are making nanowires. The more we can understand about the behaviour of the nanowires and devices we are working with, the better we will be able to lead the commercialisation of this very promising technology,” says Dr Brown.

Nano Cluster Devices has already attracted overseas interest, and announced recently that a joint venture company had been formed in the United States in partnership with Buffalo-based Nanodynamics, aimed at commercialising the NCD technology. Dr Brown will oversee the new research at the University of Canterbury. The programme will investigate the basic properties of NCD’s innovative electronic devices. The NCD research funding is through a subcontract from Industrial Research Ltd, which holds the main contract with the Foundation for Research Science and Technology. NCD chairman John Walley said that the FoRST subcontract was an important further step in developing Nano Cluster Devices’ business, and should provide significant value to its shareholders.

The research contract

Industrial Research’s main contract with the Foundation for Research Science and Technology is intended to commercialise software for the modelling of materials and devices at different scales. Industrial Research and Nano Cluster Devices have an intellectual property sharing arrangement, which ensures that each of the two organisations own their relevant intellectual property.

Industrial Research will focus on development of software packages but will also provide theoretical support to the Nano Cluster Devices research. The NCD team will provide samples to IRL. Dr Shaun Hendy from IRL – who is a world leading expert in molecular dynamics simulations – has already been working with Dr Brown's group extensively over the past three years, and the team has a proven track record of success with several high-profile publications. Both Dr Hendy and Dr Brown are members of the MacDiarmid Institute for advanced materials and nanotechnology, which is a governmentfunded

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Global Nanosensor Market to Reach $17.2 Billion by 2012, Says New Report


December 7, 2004

According to NANOSENSORS: A MARKET OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS, a new report from NanoMarkets, LC, an industry analyst firm based here, sensors designed and built using nanotechnology will generate global revenues of $2.7 billion in 2008 and reach $17.2 billion in 2012.

Nanosensor arrays are already under development by giant firms such as Dow Corning, Samsung, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, IBM, Motorola, and Agilent as well as by start-ups such as Nanomix and Ambri. NanoMarkets foresees important applications for nanosensors in a wide range of applications including medicine and healthcare, military and homeland defense, industrial control and robotics, networking and communications, and environmental monitoring.

NanoMarkets believes that the market opportunities for nanosensors will stem, in large part, from unique features that surpass competing technologies.

In areas such as biomedicine and homeland security, for example, nanosensors' ability to detect at the molecular or even atomic level is critical. Nanosensors will better detect the onset of diseases such as cancer or heart disease, and NanoMarkets expects the market for biomedical nanosensors to reach approximately $800 million in 2008 and $1.2 billion in 2012.

Nanosensors for military and homeland defense applications, where they will be used to detect the presence of biotoxins (such as anthrax and smallpox) or of radioactive materials, are projected to reach $827 million in 2008 and grow to $3.9 billion in 2012.

The new NanoMarkets report covers two kinds of nanosensors: conventional sensors that use nanomaterials as the sensing material and nanosensors that utilize nanoelectronics to reduce size and cost and provide a higher level of functional integration. Among the technology/materials platforms studied were carbon nanotubes, nanowires, molectronics, spintronics, and "plastic electronics." Types of sensors reviewed include gas/liquid, biomolecular, "physical" (motion, pressure, etc.), optical, electrical/magnetic and radiation. The report includes an eight-year forecast of the market broken out by application sector, with each of the sector forecasts further broken out by type of sensor and material/technology platform. Also included are profiles of 25 firms actively pursuing the development of nanosensors.

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New microscope could focus nanotech dream


December 1, 2004

The $100 million project--known as TEAM, or Transmission Electron Aberration-corrected Microscope--is being conducted at five national laboratories. Hillsboro, Ore.-based FEI, which makes electron microscopes and other equipment necessary for observing or manipulating individual atoms and molecules, will also participate in the project, along with other companies.

The first TEAM microscope, which will be located at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., is expected to become operational by 2007 or 2008. The project began in 2000, but activity is mounting. The Energy Department announced FEI's involvement this week.

Microscopes, probes and other equipment are a crucial part of the foundation for a nanotech industry because they enable scientists to actually see what they are making. With a scanning electron microscope, scientists can "look" inside layers of silicon wafers to detect subsurface defects, an increasing problem in chipmaking.

A focused ion beam, meanwhile, works something like an atomic meat slicer, trimming off thin layers of material.

"You can also use it to deposit metals or insulators," Robert Sinclair, chairman of the materials science and engineering department at Stanford University, said earlier this month at a nanotechnology symposium.

How big will nanotech be? Many assert that it will become a huge industry. The U.S. government, the European Union and Japan will each spend around $900 million in 2004 on research, while companies like Intel and IBM say nanotech is already part of chipmaking. Others, such as venture capitalist Don Valentine, however, say it is overhyped.

The resolution level the TEAM project hopes to achieve is, well, small. An angstrom is one-tenth of a nanometer, which itself is a billionth of a meter. A human hair is about 1 million times thicker than an angstrom. At this level, polished samples of carbon atoms look like rows of ball bearings, while the different layers of atoms that make up silicon nanowires resemble the stratified geological layers of a canyon.

Earlier this year, FEI announced that it captured images with a resolution just below an angstrom (i.e., particles or features measuring a little less than an angstrom could still be identified). The company's machines were also used to create the first pictures of the SARS virus.

One of the principal challenges in getting below an angstrom lay in filtering out the impact of any aberrations in the microscope lenses and thereby improving the resolution of the captured image. Electron microscopes create images by shooting electrons at a specimen and then capturing the pattern created by the electrons after encountering the specimen through a series of magnetic or electric lenses. Technically, these aren't lenses in the conventional sense, but fields that focus or control electron behavior and ultimately the resulting image.

But, like glass optical lenses, it is the quality of the lens that determines the resolution of the image and, in the end, all lenses are defective. Aberration correction essentially tries to overcome these defects by using multiple lenses.

"By putting multiple elements together, you can arrange the aberration coefficient so that they cancel each other out," said Nestor Zaluzec, a scientist at Argonne National Laboratories. Argonne, along with Heidelberg, Germany-based CEOS, is creating for the TEAM what it calls the Ultracorrector, which will consist of 13 magnetic lenses. Argonne hopes to have a prototype of the Ultracorrector created in three years.

Some companies and institutions have recently said they have created images through aberration correction, but the use of the technique has just begun and is still somewhat basic. "We've known mathematically how do to this for 20 years, but the technology hasn't been there," Zaluzec said.

The TEAM microscope is a variation of a transmission electron microscope. In these systems, an electron beam is aimed at a thin sample that lies above a detector. An image is then created by measuring the number of electrons that pass through the systems, analogous to how a slide projector works. Earlier this year, scientists were able to capture images where particles as long as an angstrom could be clearly seen.

By contrast, a Scanning Electron Microscope captures images by measuring the deflection of electrons. It can capture images in the best circumstances down to a nanometer.

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Groundbreaking Nanotechnology Research at The University of Scranton Published in `Science'


November 12, 2004

SCRANTON, Pa., November 12, 2004 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time, an innovative research technique successfully completed a detailed measurement of how heat energy is created at the molecular level, an approach that could have far- reaching implications for developing nano-devices in health care, computer and other industries.

Research results, published in the October 15 issue of "Science," detail a collaborative effort involving The University of Scranton, a Jesuit university in Pennsylvania, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a research institution in Illinois.

"This is the first time that anyone has measured how a specific motion of a molecule on one side of a molecular wall causes molecules within the wall to move," said John Deak, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry at The University of Scranton. "In nanotechnology, researchers design materials whose properties originate in clusters of molecules on the nanometer level. This research can be used to help us better understand how molecules interact on these dimensions."

"The experiment detailed the pathways for energy transfer and also provided the tools to study other molecules," said Dana Dlott, Ph.D., chemistry professor, University of Illinois. "In designing nanoscale devices, the shapes of the molecules must be designed not only to be small and fast, but also to move heat effectively. There is no reason that this technique is not applicable to just about any molecule."

The research used vibrational spectroscopy with picosecond time resolution to monitor the flow of energy across surfactant molecules that separate droplets of confined water from a nonpolar liquid phase. Their research shows that the surfactant layer must be analyzed in terms of its vibrational couplings, rather than by ordinary heat conduction. Their research provided the first detail of the precise pathways for interfacial vibrational energy in both time and space resolution.

The paper, entitled "Vibrational energy transfer across a reverse micelle surfactant layer," was published in "Science" and on the "Science Express" Web site. Faculty and students involved are Dr. Deak and his undergraduate student Timothy Sechler from The University of Scranton; and Dr. Dlott, Yoonsoo Pang, graduate assistant, and Zhaohui Wang, post-doctoral research associate, from the University of Illinois.

The National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the U.S. Department of Energy supported this work. Two University of Scranton research grants also supported this research.

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New Test May Spot Early Signs of Alzheimer's


November 11, 2004

A diagnostic test a million times more sensitive than any used at present could revolutionise the detection of disease in two years time, it was revealed today.

The “Bio-Barcode Assay” developed by scientists in the US is a shining example of the beneficial side of nanotechnology.

Experts are already exploring ways of using it to spot early markers of Alzheimer’s disease – something that is currently impossible.

In future it could also be used to diagnose the earliest signs of cancer, HIV infection, or the human form of Mad Cow disease.

As well as vastly improving the detection of diseases that can be diagnosed by other methods today, it will open up completely new possibilities.

One example is the diagnosis of breast cancer by detecting the faintest presence of a protein normally associated with prostate cancer in men.

The technique involves the use of magnets, gold, DNA and antibodies.

Specific antibodies are first selected which will bind onto the bio-marker being searched for – for instance, Prostate Specific Antigen, or PSA, which is a signature of prostate cancer.

One antibody is attached to a magnetic “tag”. Another is fixed to one side of a spherical gold nanoparticle, just 30 millionths of a millimetre across. Strands of randomly chosen DNA are attached to the other side of the nanoparticle.

When both antibodies bind to a molecule of PSA, they carry their attachments with them. The molecule is therefore sandwiched between a magnetic particle on one side, and a piece of DNA on the other.

A magnet is used to drag the resulting complex out of the solution being tested.

By detecting the DNA’s recognisable sequence, the tester immediately knows that a molecule of PSA is present. Only that particular sequence of DNA is attached to the specific antibody that seeks out PSA.

The system is simple and cheap to operate. Potentially it could be used in GPs surgeries as well as hospitals, or even by members of the public at home.

Professor Chad Mirkin, director of the Northwestern University Institute for Nanotechnology in Evanston, Illinois, where the Bio-Barcode was developed, said today: “This system is a million times more sensitive than conventional tools for screening.

“It’s going to, hopefully, change the way medical diagnostics is done.”

He said the test was also very fast, a complete analysis taking less than an hour.

Professor Mirkin expected a research version to be available in under a year, and a model suitable for doctors in about two.

Research was under way to see if the Bio-Barcode can detect Alzheimer’s at an early stage by detecting a marker protein called ADDL.

This is found in the brain, where it is beyond the reach of diagnostic instruments in living patients.

However ADDL is also known to exist in cerebro-spinal fluid, and may even be present in very small amounts in the blood.

No test currently used is sensitive enough to spot the protein in these locations. But the Bio-Barcode has already shown that it can detect ADDL in cerebro-spinal fluid. If a blood test also proves possible, it will be a giant step forward.

“Right now there are no markers that allow you to diagnose Alzheimer’s before death,” said Professor Mirkin.

“We are going to the international Alzheimer’s disease community and saying send us anything you think may be a marker, and we’ll do the analysis.

“The same scenario holds true for Mad Cow and HIV and all these other diseases.”

One exciting possibility was the detection of tiny levels of PSA in women with breast cancer, said Professor Mirkin. PSA was known to accompany breast cancer, but at levels much too low to be detected with conventional technology.

He said the Bio-Barcode could allow 10 or more tests for different markers to be carried out at once, using different DNA strands on a single “coding pad”.

Details of the research were presented today at a one-day international conference on bionanotechnology held in London.

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BioCrystal and Crystalplex in Broad Cross-Licensing Pact

Collaboration Will Promote Wider Development and Use of Fluorescent Nanocrystals and Encoded Nanobeads in Research and Diagnostics

November 1, 2004

COLUMBUS, Ohio and PITTSBURGH, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Two emerging nanotechnology companies announced a broad cross-licensing agreement that will extend the market reach and technical utility of their fluorescent biomolecular assaying platforms.

BioCrystal Ltd., based in Columbus, Ohio, and Crystalplex Corp., based in Pittsburgh, Pa., also said they agreed to collaborate on the development of novel products using the proprietary technologies of each company. The agreement also provides for possible joint product distribution.

The agreement combines highly complementary technologies for producing fluorescent semiconducting nanocrystals and nanobeads, which are gaining increasing use in the detection of low-abundance molecules in biological research and clinical diagnosis.

In particular, BioCrystal provided Crystalplex with a non-exclusive worldwide license to its intellectual property related to nanocrystal-encoded beads and a nanocrystal-enhanced filter set for microscopy applications. BioCrystal will also allow Crystalplex to use non-water-soluble nanocrystals for encoding into Crystalplex's PlxBead products and its water-soluble nanocrystals products for sale with Crystalplex PlxBeads.

Crystalplex provided BioCrystal with a nonexclusive worldwide sublicense to its alloyed nanocrystal technology licensed from Indiana University.

"Crystalplex is delighted to forge a working relationship with such a strong technology leader," said Alan R. Seadler, Ph.D., president and CEO of Crystalplex. "This collaboration will have a major impact on the future of fluorescent nanocrystals as platforms for highly multiplexed and ultra- sensitive molecular detection."

"Crystalplex has a clear vision of what it expects to accomplish with its bead-based technology," said Jeffrey R. Bergen, president and CEO of BioCrystal. "We are pleased to have this opportunity to broaden biological and clinical applications for fluorescent nanocrystal products."

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EDA Funding Supports Creation of Tri-State Nanotechnology Alliance

October 20, 2004

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 20, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP), New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology, and Delaware Technology Park were recently awarded a $295,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (EDA), to create the Mid-Atlantic Nanotechnology Alliance(MANA). The award presentation occurred at a special ceremony during the State Science and Technology Institute annual conference held October 13-15 in Philadelphia.

MANA was conceived by the Nanotechnology Hot Team during the Regional Roadmap 2010 process, an initiative of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and Innovation Philadelphia. "The Mid-Atlantic region is emerging as a nanotechnology leader, with important research, development and industrial initiatives already underway. MANA was established to position the tri-state region (DE, NJ, and PA) as a global hub for the expanded research, development, application, and commercialization of nanotechnology," noted RoseAnn B. Rosenthal, president and CEO of BFTP/SEP.

The two-year EDA grant will facilitate MANA's efforts to secure and attract funding for research, facilities, commercialization and company investments; develop and disseminate information and knowledge for best practices, as well as policy, planning, and investment opportunities, and position the region with a unified message.

Since 1982, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP) has helped grow the region through science, technology and entrepreneurship. Ben Franklin provides entrepreneurs and established businesses the capital, talent, and expertise they need to compete in the global marketplace. Like its namesake, Ben Franklin invests in, builds upon and delivers solutions that grow communities and create wealth by supporting today's technological ideas and tomorrow's scientific discovery.

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State Ben Franklin Funding Awarded to PSU nanotechnology project

October 19, 2004

University Park, Pa. --- Penn State's Nanotechnology Research and Commercialization project has been awarded $3.5 million from Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority (BFTDA) to support nanotechnology education, research and commercialization.

The grant was part of $13.6 million in BFTDA funding announced recently to support Gov. Edward G. Rendell's technology-focused economic development strategy. According to the announcement from the Community and Economic Development Secretary, the grant will provide state co-funding for federally sponsored nanotechnology research centers at Penn State.

Hank Foley, associate vice president for research at Penn State, says, "Penn State is an engine for economic growth in the central region and the Commonwealth. This grant is essential to us and will be used to fund new research in high risk - high reward areas, to improve our infrastructure and facilities, to continue workforce development and education in partnership with the State System of Higher Education and community colleges and to enhance the commercialization of nanotechnology to spur the growth of new business."

The BFTDA grant provides leverage for Penn State to procure further funding from industry and federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation. The BFTDA also provides separate funding for four Ben Franklin Technology Partners throughout Pennsylvania that identify the most promising technological ventures providing them with technical assistance and capital.

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New chip technology promises to yield “nanosized” sensors to fight bioterrorism, disease, and pollution

August 30, 2004

Soldiers in the wars against bioterrorism, disease, and environmental pollution are often weighed down by the bulky equipment required to detect and monitor biochemicals. Current biochemical sensors can be as big as a truck. Even the smallest are the size of laptop computers.

But what if entire biochemical sensing systems could be shrunk to the size of a fingernail tip? Plasmonic chip technology—which may someday enable scientists to squeeze millions of sensor elements onto a single computer chip—promises to create just such “nanoscaled” biochemical sensing systems, says University of Pittsburgh Professor Hong Koo Kim.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded Kim a $1.3 million, four-year NSF Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) grant to develop plasmonic chip technologies for biochemical sensing. At a more basic level, Kim and his Pitt colleagues also will investigate the fundamentals of plasmonic phenomena in nanoscale metallic structures.

“If this nanoscaled biochemical sensing technology becomes a reality, it would revolutionize healthcare—including diagnosis of disease and monitoring of health status—as well as our ability to detect toxic and hazardous biochemical agents for environmental and homeland security purposes,” said Kim, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and codirector of Pitt’s Institute of NanoScience and Engineering.

Kim and his institute colleagues are experts in thinking small, i.e., on a nanoscale (a nanometer equals one-billionth of a meter). Nanoscientists use atoms and molecules as basic building blocks to construct minute machines, create new materials, or perform molecular tasks.

Surface plasmon is a collective oscillation of electrons that occurs in metals in response to light, Kim explained. “The collective behavior of electrons in metals can result in many interesting phenomena,” he noted. “Beautiful colors generated by stained glass represent a good example of this surface plasmon phenomenon: Metallic nanoparticles in stained glass absorb light at different spectral bands and thus reveal characteristic colors.”

The characteristic behavior of surface plasmons is governed by both the structure and the materials involved. In Kim’s project, specially designed arrays of nanosized holes and slits are being explored as a medium for interaction with light, in place of random structures (such as metallic nanoparticle clusters in stained glass). Thanks to these specially designed arrays, the collective behavior of electrons can be confined within a nanometer-scale aperture, which is far smaller than the wavelength of light.

Kim’s NIRT project involves cross-school collaboration with Pitt Professor Hrvoje Petek of the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Professors Rob Coalson, David Waldeck, and Gilbert Walker of Pitt’s Department of Chemistry.

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PA Proves Its Contender Status at the Business of Nano 2004

May 27, 2004

On the heels of its improved status in Small Times Magazine's annual national nanotech hot spot rankings, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania effectively communicated its commitment to grow its nanotechnology industries at its Business of Nano 2004 conference. The conference, held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia on May 25-26, attracted more than 500 attendees from various corporate, academic, research, development, manufacturing, and investment communities.

In his remarks, conference host, Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Yablonsky noted that, “Nanotechnology is an engine that will drive industrial change in the coming years. This conference is just one example of how the Commonwealth is positioning itself to ensure it is a key player in this building wave of development that promises to create a new generation of jobs for Pennsylvanians.”

Josh Wolfe, a renowned authority on nanotechnology, was the opening plenary speaker. Wolfe, the managing partner of Lux Capital, editor of Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, and a senior associate of the Foresight Institute for Nanotechnology, wowed the audience with science, history and humor during his presentation about the potential and importance of nanotechnology. Following the conference, he wrote in his Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Weekly Insider, "Light will be thrown" declared Darwin. And so it continues to be thrown all over nanotechnology. Starting the week off in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, whose love for nanotechnology was outrageously clear with over 500 participants from government, academic and investment groups gathering to talk shop. Given the high-caliber of folks, my stay was regretfully short, but I look forward to next year's event.”

Phillip J. Bond, Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce also was a keynote speaker at the Business of Nano 2004. In his comments, Secretary Bond spoke about the significance of nanotechnology to the U.S. economy, nanotechnology's potential as an economic driver, the U.S. commitment to nanotechnology, and the nation's competitive position in the world regarding nanotechnology. He noted, "Nanotechnology may well become a second Industrial Revolution – a revolution built literally from the atomic level up. Virtually every industry in the global economy will be impacted by this smallest of all technologies. America will lead the way in nano-related economic growth and high-wage job creation. With its world-class corporations, universities and federal laboratories, Pennsylvania is well-positioned to help lead America."

Given the excitement about the Commonwealth's nanotechnology interests, planning for The Business of Nano 2005 was underway less than an hour after the conclusion of this year's conference.

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For more information, email lbanaszak@plsg.com or call 412-770-1353.