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Nano Summit 2007 to be Held at
Texas A&M University on August 7-8
Nano Summit 2007 will be
held August 7-8 at the Annenburg Presidential Conference Center
of the George Bush Library and Museum Complex at Texas A&M University.
The Summit will highlight research and technology transfer conducted
by “The Rising Stars of Texas.”
“The
Dwight Look College of Engineering and Texas A&M are pleased
to host this event that was started in 2002 by Mr. Conrad Masterson
of the Nanotechnology Foundation of Texas,” said Dr. Theresa Maldonado,
Associate Vice Chancellor for Engineering. “In recent years, universities
and industry in Texas have hired a lot of talented individuals,
who are enriching the research capacity and further enabling the
economic development of the state.”
The keynote speaker for
the event is Dr. Zhong Lin (ZL) Wang of the Georgia Institute of
Technology. Featured entrepreneurs are Mr. Barry Drayson, CEO of
NanoComposites Inc., and Dr. Robert Magnusson, Chief Technology
Officer and Founder of Resonant Sensors Inc.
Dr. Zhong Lin (ZL) Wang,
Regents Professor and College of Engineering Distinguished Professor,
is the Director of the Center for Nanostructure Characterization
and Fabrication at Georgia Institute of Technology. His research
interests include the science and applications of nanoparticles,
nanowires and nanobelts; functional oxide and smart materials for
sensing and actuation; and nanomaterials for biomedical applications.
He is a leader in developing innovative technologies for wireless
nanodevices and nanosystems of critical importance for in-situ,
real-time and implantable biosensing, biomedical monitoring and
biodetection.
Barry Drayson is CEO of
NanoComposites Inc. (NCI) of Humble, Texas. NCI applies nanotechnology
in the manufacture of composite materials, especially mission-critical
applications with elastomers in upstream oil and gas applications.
NCI holds exclusive, unrestricted licenses to key patents for functionalizing
carbon nanotubes. Drayson was previously CEO of DTN Information
Services, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Buildnet
Inc., and President and CEO of Reuters Marketing Information. He
received a B.S. in Economics and an MBA in Finance from New York
University.
Dr. Robert Magnusson is
CTO and co-founder of Resonant Sensors Inc. (RSI) of Arlington,
Texas. RSI researchers are the innovators of a new optical sensor
technology with nanoscale features that can monitor biochemical
reactions in real time with exceptional accuracy and without the
need for chemical tags. This differentiating technology provides
new tools for the biosensor market that will dramatically reduce
the cost and development time of pharmaceutical and medical products.
Magnusson earned a Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Researchers interested in presenting at the
conference and hired at a Texas university or company since 2001
should email a one-page abstract on their topic to nanosummit@tamu.edu.
Presenters will be selected and notified by June 30. The presenter's
name and e-mail address must be included on the page. In addition,
a student poster contest will be held. Please e-mail coker@tamu.edu
for poster session instructions.
Information for Nano Summit Registration can be found at nanosummit.tamu.edu.
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Translational
Optical Molecular Imaging: Nano to Macro May 21-23
Rice University, Baylor College
of Medicine and UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center will jointly host
a 3-day translational optical imaging short course May 21-23, 2007.
Full course details, abstract submissions, and registration can
be accessed at: www.opticalimaging.rice.edu
Keynote and technical speakers will cover the latest research in
high-resolution optical imaging; deep-tissue optical imaging; contrast
agents and molecular beacons
Industry panel discussions will focus on future trends in diagnostic
imaging instrumentation (Olympus, Zeiss, Coherent, Cambridge Research
Inc.); multi-modal imaging and image-guided intervention (GE Healthcare,
Siemens, Kodak, J&J); contrast agents and molecular beacons
(Invitrogen, Caliper Life Sciences). |
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National
Academies Keck Futures Human Healthspan Conference - Applications
due June 7, 2007
The National Academies
Keck Futures Initiative is accepting applications from active
researchers to participate in The Future of Human Healthspan:
Demography, Evolution, Medicine, and Bioengineering conference
that will be held Nov. 14-16, 2007, in Irvine, California.
Each year the Futures Initiative hosts a conference to bring together
the nation's best and brightest researchers from academia, industry,
and government laboratories to ask questions about -- and to discover
interdisciplinary connections between -- important areas of cutting-edge
research. Approximately 100 researchers in the United States
will be invited to attend the conference, representing disciplines
in science, engineering, medicine, and social science. Applications
must be submitted by June 7, and can be completed online at www.keckfutures.org/healthspan.
Invitations to attend the conference will be sent by July
15. The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative will
pay all travel expenses, including lodging and meals, for invited
attendees. Funded by a $40 million grant from the W.M. Keck
Foundation in 2003, the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative
is a 15-year effort to enhance communication among researchers,
funding organizations, universities, and the public – with the
objective of stimulating interdisciplinary research at the most
exciting frontiers.
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Russia to Invest $1 Billion in
Nano Research
Business Week announced that Russia will
invest approximately $1.1 billion in nanotechnology research over
the next three years, according to a statement made by Deputy Prime
Minister Sergei Ivanov. "(Nanotechnology) is a very promising
scientific and technical field, capable of fundamentally changing
the model of the Russian economy from a fuel economy to an economy
of the future," said Ivanov at the conclusion of a meeting
at the Kurchatov nuclear and scientific research institute, which
was attended by President Vladimir Putin. |
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nanoTX'07
Scheduled for October 3-4 in Dallas
The nanoTX'07 International
Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Expo (www.nanotx.biz)
will be held at the Dallas Convention Center on October 3-4, 2007
in Dallas, Texas.
The Technical Focus areas for the conference will include biomedical,
carbon nanotubes, MEMS/NEMS, nanoelectronics and nanomaterials.
The Business Focus areas will include carbon nanotubes & materials
based businesses, electronics industry needs, energy needs and
latter stage startups.
Last September, nanoTX'06 drew approximately 4000 attendees from
the US and 24 foreign countries. Nearly 40% of the attendees
were decision makers; an additional 10% were CEOs. The conference
included Chairman Emeritus Ross Perot, Sr; Texas Instruments CEO
Richard K. Templeton, Texas Governor Rick Perry, International
Business Strategies CEO Dr. Handel Jones, Japan's International
Center for Materials Research Chairman Dr. Tadashi Sasaki and
151 more distinguished executive level speakers. The Nobel
Laureate Legends Reception was dedicated to the memory of Dr.
Richard Smalley and Dr. Jack Kilby.
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$300
Million Lures Sematech to the Region
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer
and legislative leaders revealed that Sematech has agreed to locate
a key part of its operation in Albany, as long as the state comes
up with a $300 million incentive package. As a result, the
governor and top lawmakers committed the funds in a capital budget
bill for International Sematech. The company would establish its
international headquarters in Albany, adding about 450 high-paying
research and development jobs here to an existing work force of
250. (The national headquarters will remain in Austin, TX.)
These jobs historically
would have been in Texas. This is quite a coup fro New York
and follows their recruiting Sematech to open a research facility
in 2003. International Sematech is agreeing to operate in
New York for at least seven years.
State officials expect
it will take at least two to three years for International Sematech
to fully establish in Albany.
New York will put up
$300 million for assets of the new operation, such as equipment
and tools, and the state will own those investments, Kaloyeros
said. It will also hold rights to intellectual property.
The company will invest a matching $300 million -- half cash and
half in-kind contributions such as equipment -- in its new headquarters.
That includes $5 million to each of five universities for joint
research.
Austin won a bid for Sematech
two decades ago against other regions and cities, including Albany.
Getting the company here came after several years of work, according
to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who was highly involved in
the deal.
The governor, in a meeting
with the Legislature's top four leaders, revealed funding for
Sematech is one of his top priorities of the remaining weeks of
the legislative session. The leaders agreed to commit the
money for the high-tech project. But Senate Majority Leader Joseph
L. Bruno said he wants more than the Sematech funds in a capital
projects package. He called the consortium's funding "critically
important" but emphasized that there are other deals he's
working on to create jobs. Legislative officials say Bruno will
be looking for a total capital package of about $600 million,
including the Sematech funds. Bruno, for example, said $8.5
million is needed for the planned Advanced Micro Devices site
at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta, a proposed massive
computer chip factory project that the state has agreed to assist
with $1.2 billion in state aid and tax breaks if the company decides
to build. Calling the AMD project the biggest ever in New
York, Bruno said he is still negotiating for capital for AMD's
needs as well as another big project he may announce soon in the
Albany area.
Already, Silver said, Sematech
employs 250 in Albany as a result of a facility the group opened
in 2003 at the University at Albany campus. "And
factories spring up around it to create more jobs where the research
is taking place," Silver said. "It's phenomenal,
they're abandoning Austin to come to Albany," said Assembly
Majority Leader Ronald Canestrari, D-Cohoes. "Any time we
get a reverse migration from the South to the North in terms of
jobs, it's a real good day."
Bruno said the region has
become a global leader, but it is important to deliver the jobs
associated with the news releases.
"That will mean a
lot of jobs and what it also means is a lot of businesses follow
the Sematech," Bruno said. He said 120,000 people followed
jobs associated with Sematech in Austin. "It's huge."
Assemblyman John McEneny,
D-Albany, said the deal to bring Sematech sends a message. "The
significance of leaving Austin, which was looked at as the great
mecca of computer chip dreams, for Albany is an extraordinary
coup." He said he doubts Texas will be able to counterbid.
Assemblyman Tim Gordon, I-Bethlehem, said he envisions growth
throughout the state because 500 companies statewide are tied
into Sematech's work. Sematech's arrival would create and retain
4,550 high-tech jobs averaging $81,000 a year, he said.
Source: Albany
TImes Union
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XetaComp
Receives Nanotechnology Commercialization Award from State of Oklahoma
NanoBioMagnetics, Inc (NBMI)
announced today that XetaComp Nanotechnologies, a wholly owned subsidiary,
was one of five companies named to receive commercialization grants
from the State's first Oklahoma Nanotechnology Applications Project
awards. The awards were made in March by the Oklahoma Center for
the Advancement of Science and Technology governing board. XetaComp
will receive a grant of $250,000, which the company's General Manager,
Dennis Donaldson, says will be used to speed the production and
marketing of sunVextm broad-spectrum UVA/UVB sunscreens. The company
intends to have products in the marketplace this summer.
XetaComp will use a process
technology developed by NBMI to produce high-performance UVA/UVB
sunscreens that on a cost-basis will significantly broaden the applications
range of such products.
Charles Seeney, CEO of
NBMI, believes sunVextm products are only the beginning, “This is
just the first chapter for XetaComp; one that will generate a revenue
stream so that other product technologies can follow.” The company
has already received a number of requests for samples of production
material, and can now move forward because of the commercialization
award.
According to Donaldson,
XetaComp has been evaluating potential manufacturing sites in Oklahoma
over the past few months and will probably use a site in Lawton
for the production of sunVextm intermediates and other nanomaterials.
He adds, “We have developed a new type of physical sunblock that
meets the increasing market demand for broad-spectrum UV attenuation,
application clarity and cost-economics.”
A recent article from the CDC pointed to
skin cancer as the most common form of cancer in the United States.
The American Cancer Society estimates that a combined total of more
than 1 million new cases of basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas
and an additional 51,400 new cases of malignant melanoma will be
diagnosed annually.
The funding program enacted by the State Legislature provides a mechanism
to extend financial support and technical services for the application
of nanotechnology in Oklahoma 's manufacturing and business community.
Seeney believes the State focus on nanotechnology infrastructure and
commercialization will yield significant future dividends as this
emerging industry develops. He says, “This is a great start, and we
need to ensure that we continue the effort.” |
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Probe
to Detect Spread of Breast Cancer Co-Developed by UH Scientist
High-temperature superconductors
hold the key to a handheld tool for surgeons that promises to
be more accurate, cost-effective and safer than existing methods
for staging and treating various cancers, including breast cancer.
Audrius Brazdeikis,
research assistant professor of physics in the College of Natural
Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Houston, and Quentin
Pankhurst, a professor of physics from the University College
of London (UCL), have developed a novel detection procedure combining
nanotechnology and advanced magnetic sensing based on high-temperature
superconductors. Their innovation will enable surgeons to
more effectively locate the sentinel lymph node – the first lymph
node to which a tumor's metastasizing cancer cells will drain.
The researchers produced
an ultra sensitive magnetic probe to detect minuscule magnetic
fields in the body. The probe is a supersensitive magnetometer
– an instrument used to track the presence of clinically introduced
magnetic nanoparticles. During breast cancer surgery, a
surgeon will inject a magnetic nanoparticle dye, already approved
as an imaging contrast agent by the Food and Drug Administration,
into the tumor or into tissues surrounding the tumor.
Receiving a $250,000
grant from the United Kingdom Department of Trade and Industry
under the UK-Texas Bioscience Collaboration Initiative, Brazdeikis
and Pankhurst were required to show “proof of concept” by building
a device and showing it worked. An ethics committee in the
UK since has approved the detection procedure for a clinical trial
of women undergoing breast cancer surgery at University College
Hospital, London.
Dr. Michael Douek, a
London surgeon who specializes in breast surgery and is a senior
lecturer at UCL, is overseeing the trial and used the probe for
the first time in surgery in December. Douek, who visited
Houston recently in preparation for the testing, said that the
ethics committee gave the hospital permission to use the probe
in 10 surgeries and that after a review of those procedures, the
number could increase to 100. “We expect to start new clinical
trials in Japan and Europe before the end of 2007,” Brazdeikis
said. “Our technology will be extensively validated by different
surgeons in various countries.”
Brazdeikis, who heads
the Biomedical Imaging Group at the Texas Center for Superconductivity
at UH (TcSUH), said a goal of the grant was to commercialize biomedical
technology developed at universities through collaborative research.
He and Pankhurst, deputy director of the London Centre for Nanotechnology,
have formed a medical devices company – Endomagnetics Inc. – to
bring their technology to the marketplace and patented the probe.
“The company plans to
roll out the production of the technology in 2008,” Brazdeikis
said. “We hope that in the next two to three years practice
assisted with our new probe will become more widely adopted by
surgeons.”
Endomagnetics also already
has garnered recognition from such key world figures as England
's Prince Andrew, his country's special representative for international
trade and investment, who highlighted new technology developed
by the nanotechnology industry at the Nano-TX '06 conference in
Dallas. He cited the UH-UCL collaboration and Endomagnetics'
as an “exciting example of the early stages of this kind of progress.”
“The partnership has
resulted in a technology used to locate lymph nodes for the staging
and treatment of various forms of cancer, including breast cancers
and melanomas, and some of the more disfiguring and demoralizing
forms of cancer,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks.
“Although the technology
has potential for use in the staging and treatment of other cancers,
including lung and prostate cancer, the instrument needs to be
customized for the type of surgery,” said Douek, who has advised
the researchers from the beginning of the probe's development.
“We went through a whole series of different probes during the
course of a year. I was interested in being part of the
project because of my interest in magnetic resonance imaging.
This is an extension of that technology.”
A surgeon holds the
probe, which incorporates two sets of coils connected to a sensor.
One set of coils magnetizes the magnetic particles, and the second
detects the magnetic response from those particles. The
sensor, known as an HTS SQUID (or high-temperature superconducting
quantum interference device) is located in a cryogenic vessel
on a cart and is submerged in liquid nitrogen that cools the sensor
to 77 K, equivalent to -320.5 F. The system uses custom-built
electronics and software on a laptop computer to give the surgeon
visual and audio feedback while tracking the magnetic nanoparticles
in the body.
“When breast cancer
is diagnosed, and a tumor has been located, a critically important
issue is whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body
– a process that occurs via the transport of metastatic cancer
cells through the lymphatic system,” Brazdeikis said. “The
surgeon looks for lymph nodes close to the cancer. They
are not easy to find. The probe is a tool for the surgeon
to use during the surgery to locate the sentinel lymph node.”
Existing practice calls
for a breast cancer patient to receive two preoperative injections
– a radioactive isotope and a blue dye – eight to 12 hours before
surgery, frequently requiring hospitalization the night before
the operation. Later, in the operating room, the surgeon
uses a handheld gamma probe, aided by the visual observation of
the dye, to locate the lymph node with the highest radioactivity.
“Surgeons have a very
small window of opportunity to locate the lymphatic nodes that
the cancer drains into,” Brazdeikis said. “Our technology
offers unprecedented quality and value of care benefits to patients,
doctors and hospital administrators over existing procedures.”
The UH-UCL technology
allows a surgeon to administer one injection – the magnetic dye
that takes only 10 to 15 minutes to work – and eliminates the
need for a nuclear medicine practitioner to inject the radioactive
material. A patient thus may not have to be hospitalized
while waiting, and the technology eliminates unnecessary patient
and surgeon exposure to radioactivity.
“We introduce a paradigm-shifting
new technology for the staging and treatment of breast and other
forms of cancer,” Brazdeikis said. “It will be very appealing
for surgeons to take this technology into their practice.”
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University
of Texas Team Wins Nano Product Competition
Oak Ridge National Lab
held a Nano Idea to Product competition as part of Nano Nexus
2007. Fifteen teams of students presented business proposals
for new and exciting nano product ideas. THe team
from UT Austin won the competition and its $25,000 prize with
a targeted drug delivery platform. The drug delivery "capsule"
was a biodegradable nano-sized cylinder with a lid that dissolves
in the presence of specific enzymes to release the encapsulated
drug.
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