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Jan. 27, 2003 — The research portfolio at Industrial Science & Technology Network Inc. might sound a tad disparate — environmental remediation, optical electronics, biotechnology — but there is a method.
Company executives say silica chemistry, and a commitment to fundamental nanoscience, are the threads stitching together the various pieces.
“There are tremendous synergies in all of the R&D we do,” said Arthur Yang, president of the York, Pa., company. “One thing that we take a lot of pride in is the fact that we train all of our scientists to have an extremely strong understanding of the fundamental science behind what we do. As a result, their work can often be applied directly to more than one initiative.”
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The company was started in 1996 by Yang, who had been working in insulation and foaming product development for Armstrong World Industries, a leader in the manufacture of floors, ceilings and cabinets.
With his knowledge of silica chemistry, Yang and a group of researchers began exploring substances that could help alleviate the damage some substances wreak on the environment. They created Chemically Surface Modified Gels (CSMG), with help from three separate U.S. Department of Energy grants.
The United States has thousands of industrial and military sites that require environmental cleanup. Methods for dealing with heavy metal ions in wastewater treatment were particularly in demand when Yang started. The CSMG product, his company’s first, utilizes a nanopore material, such as a modified silica aerogel, to do the heavy metal remediation.
The CSMG product was so successful, the company has sold out of the product and is now looking to license it to other companies. Company executives recently negotiated an agreement with a chemicals manufacturer in Taiwan to manufacture the CSMG product line.
Since the late 1990s, ISTN has also branched out into optical coatings and biotechnology.
The company has an R&D grant with a Taiwanese manufacturer in the display industry to develop anti-glare and anti-reflection (AGAR) coatings for LCD screens. The ISTN approach takes advantage of molecular self-assembly instead of the costly, and time-consuming, chemical vapor deposition process, where molecules are coated one by one in a vacuum chamber.
The company has strong ties to Asia, the display industry’s hub. The relationship buttresses ISTN’s potential in the field, Yang said.
The company recently waded into the biotechnology field, where as nanotechnology and biotechnology continue to converge, the company’s expertise in silica chemistry makes it a player in the field of drug delivery, Yang said.
Company executives champion their bottom-up, and wide-ranging, approach to business development. But Neil Gordon, a nanotechnology analyst and partner in the Montreal, Quebec, consulting firm Sygertech, cautioned that the company may be heading in too many directions.
“They should really focus on something, and be the best in the world in that,” he said. “Otherwise, they are going to be spread so thin it’s not clear what the commercial opportunity is.”
So far, ISTN has survived through grant money and investments made by the company’s principals. The company hasn’t gone after venture capital, and it doesn’t have plans to do so in the near future, said Frank Yang, director of business development.
“Nanotechnology is such an unproven technology,” he said. “From a valuation standpoint, you’re looking at giving up a big piece of your company before you can demonstrate product competency.”
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Company file: Industrial Science & Technology Network Inc.
(last updated Jan. 27, 2003)
Company
Industrial Science & Technology Network Inc.
Headquarters
2101 Pennsylvania Avenue
York, PA 17404
History
While silica chemistry expert Arthur J. Yang was working at Armstrong World Industries, he was one of the first NIST ATP grant recipients (1992) for his research into nanopore-based thermal insulation materials. He created ISTN in 1996 to bring together strengths from academia, business and government resources and focus on nanotechnology’s commercial potential. ISTN employees are expected to undergo continuous training while maintaining a commitment to R&D in the fundamental sciences of biology, chemistry and physics.
Industry
Materials research for industrial applications
Small tech-related products and services
ISTN’s initial focus was environmental remediation, targeting heavy metals found in water. The company now has three business areas, in addition to its production of customized thermal conductivity instruments:
Selected strategic partners and customers
In mid-January, ISTN announced an exclusive manufacturing agreement with Taiwan Surfactant Corp.
Selected competitors
Investment history
ISTN has never received venture capital funding. It has benefited from National Institute of Standards and Technology funding, National Institutes of Health grants, investment by company principals and a recent biotech-related Small Business Innovation Research grant.
Barriers to market
It may become difficult for ISTN to assess viable commercial opportunities in small tech if they continue to fragment their focus among multiple markets.
Goals
“I would like to see us have, at the bare minimum, one product in each of our three focus areas that is generating revenue from product sales, not just the sale of R&D services, in both the U.S. and Asia,” said Frank Yang, director of business development and strategic planning. “We need to continue to grow our R&D staff so that we maintain what we believe is our biggest competitive advantage — our technical competency. We will look to hire scientists aggressively not only in the U.S., but also in Taiwan and China, where we believe there are excellent human resources available,” said Arthur Yang, president.
Why they’re in small tech
“We are in this business because Dr. (Arthur) Yang saw a tremendous commercial potential for nanoscale science and technology at a very early point in time and felt that he could assemble the right team to carry out his vision,” said Frank Yang.
What keeps them up at night
“The fact that I am lying in bed rather than working,” said Frank Yang. “In a relatively new, highly competitive industry such as this, you are competing against so many smart people that you want to make sure you are doing everything you possibly can to develop good technology and find a viable commercial path for it. I never want to look back at a missed opportunity and attribute it to not working hard enough because that is the one business condition that is completely under your control.”
Contact
–Research by Gretchen McNeely