July 15, 2002 — Four companies today announced they had received government awards to develop small tech products and technologies.
BioForce Nanosciences Inc., a developer of nanoarray technologies for solid-phase, high-throughput molecular analysis systems based in Ames, Iowa, has received a $500,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop its NanoArrayer molecular deposition tool. The NanoArrayer is used to create biological tests with nanoscale arrays of molecules.
Glycominds Ltd., a microarray developer in Lod, Israel, and Schott Glass Technologies Inc., a Duryea, Pa.-based subsidiary of the German glass manufacturer Schott Group, will share a $1 million grant from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. The grant will fund collaborative research to develop high-throughput biochip technology for analysis of biological interactions mediated by glycans, a type of carbohydrate that plays an important role in autoimmune, inflammation and bacterial diseases.
Zyvex Corp. of Richardson, Texas, has received a $69,500 SBIR grant from the Department of Energy to design and fabricate a four-probe manipulator for transmission electron microscopes. The device would facilitate the simultaneous manipulation, measurement and analysis of micro and nanoscale materials. According to a Zyvex spokeswoman, the company will use the tool in its own research and also look to sell it to other companies.