Tag Archives: Small Times Magazine

February 24, 2009: QuantumSphere Inc. has been awarded a research grant from the California Energy Commission to develop a process using nanocatalysts to convert biomass into biofuels, the company announced in a news release.

The grant was awarded under the commission’s Energy Innovations Small Grant program (EISG) and will fund the one-year development of an algae biogasification process that utilizes nanometals as catalysts for the purposes of turning vegetation and similar biomass materials into methane, hydrogen, or other synthetic gases that can be used for transportation and other energy needs.

QuantumSphere will build a small-scale platform over the next 12 months to demonstrate the effectiveness of the process.

Algae-based bio fuels hold great promise due to their enormous energy potential. According to experts, algae grows 20×-30× faster than food crops, contains up to 30× more fuel than equivalent amounts of other bio fuel sources, and can be grown almost anywhere.

Studies show that algae can produce up to 60% of its biomass in the form of oil or carbohydrates. This oil can then be turned into biodiesel which could be sold for use in automobiles. The carbohydrates can be turned into alcohols, or gasified to bio gas, hydrogen, or methane, for many industrial applications.

“Our vision for this project was to use this process to take wet algae produced in a place like the Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley of California and convert it into renewable fuels,” Subra Iyer, principal technologist for QuantumSphere, said in a news release. “The Salton Sea is a place for large amounts of agricultural runoff which sometimes creates large algae blooms. If successful, we envision a large plant on the shore of the Salton Sea that could convert large amounts of wet algae into renewable fuels.”

The feasibility of the proposal is based on research the company has conducted using nanometals as catalysts. Iyer said the process is designed to convert any biomass, such as leaves, algae, vegetable waste, or corn stalks, into fuel.

February 24, 2009: The Russian nanotech business group RUSNANO and regulators have signed an agreement to cooperate on nanotechnology health and safety issues.

An agreement was signed by Anatoliy Chubais, CEO and director general of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO), and Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Russian Agency for Health and Consumer Rights.

They agreed to work together to confirm the safety of nanotech products and to create methods and regulatory provisions for their safe production.

RUSNANO said in a news release that it also works with groups in other countries to ensure its standards are recognized internationally.

February 24, 2009: Seer Technology Inc. has announced a new MEMS-based personal navigation system called the NaviSeer, at a military and security conference in the United Arab Emirates.

“NaviSeer uses advanced MEMS technology to provide a lightweight and compact wearable unit so that exact locations of personnel are always visible,” Kent Garland, NaviSeer’s product manager, said in a news release. “With NaviSeer’s lifelike 3-D user interface, a field commander can constantly see all personnel and make educated critical decisions in harsh and GPS denied environments.”

NaviSeer is designed to integrate seamlessly into civilian and military GPS communication systems to provide personnel position information to within 2% accuracy of distance traveled, the release said. The unit, which weighs less than 5oz, fits comfortably on the wearer’s back and translates body movement into latitude, longitude and elevation digital positions which are continuously updated to the command and control center.

Seer Technology is now taking orders for NaviSeer with product delivery scheduled for early 2Q09.


The NaviSeer allows commanders to know exact location of personnel. (Photo courtesy of Seer Technology Inc.)

February 23, 2009: UK-based Applied Nanodetectors Ltd brought a prototype of a mobile phone that doubles as a disease detector to the recent International Nanotechnology Exhibition and Conference in Japan, according to a report by Nikkei Electronics.

The prototype, according to the report, is a handset manufactured by Finland-based Nokia Corp. that contains an Applied Nanodetectors chip that can detect various diseases from the user’s breath.

According to Nikkei, the chip determines the composition of the user’s breath and tabulates the density of each gas. By matching the results with characteristics of various diseases, it can detect diseases. The matching process is similar to fingerprint matching, Victor Higgs, the company’s managing director, told Nikkei.

The company claims the mobile device can detect asthma, diabetes, lung cancer and food poisoning, the report said.

February 23, 2009: Small is promising when it comes to illuminating tiny tumors or precisely delivering drugs, but many worry about the safety of nano-scale materials. Now a team of scientists has created miniscule flakes of silicon that glow brightly, last long enough to slowly release cancer drugs, then break down into harmless by-products.

“It is the first luminescent nanoparticle that was purposely designed to minimize toxic side effects,” said Michael Sailor, a chemistry professor at the University of California, San Diego who led the study.

Many nanoparticles tested in research labs are too poisonous for use in humans.

“This new design meets a growing need for non-toxic alternatives that have a chance to make it into the clinic to treat human patients,” Sailor said.

The particles inherently glow, a useful property that is most commonly achieved by including toxic organic chemicals or tiny structures called quantum dots, which can leave potentially harmful heavy metals in their wake.

When the researchers tested their safer nanoparticles in mice, they saw tumors glow for several hours, then dim as the particles broke down. Levels dropped noticeably in a week and were undetectable after four weeks, they report in Nature Materials February 22.

This is the first sudy to image tumors and organs using biodegradable silicon nanoparticles in live animals, the authors say.

The particles begin as thin wafers made porous with an electrical current then smashed to bits with ultrasound. Additional treatment alters the physical structure of the flakes to make them glow red when illuminated with ultraviolet light.


New silicon nanoparticles illuminate tissues without harm. (Credit: Luo Gu)

Luminescent particles can reveal tumors too tiny to detect by other means or allow a surgeon to be sure all of a cancerous growth has been removed.

These nanoparticles could also help deliver drugs safely, the researchers report. The cancer drug doxorubicin will stick to the pores and slowly escape as the silicon dissolves.

“The goal is to use the nanoparticles to chaperone the drug directly to the tumor, to release it into the tumor rather than other parts of the body,” Sailor said.

Targeted delivery would allow doctors to use smaller doses of the drug. At doses high enough to be effective, when delivered to the whole body, doxorubicin often has toxic side effects.

At about 100 nanometers, these particles are bigger than many designed to deliver drugs, which can be just a few nanometers across — a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

Their larger size contributes to both their effectiveness and their safety. Large particles can hold more of a drug. Yet they self-destruct, and the remnants can be filtered away by the kidneys.

Close examination of vulnerable organs like liver, spleen and kidney, which help to remove toxins, revealed no lasting changes in mice treated with the new nanoparticles.

February 20, 2009: The US Environmental Protection Agency will, beginning in March, enforce a requirement that companies file premanufacture notices if they manufacture or import carbon nanotubes, according to a summary of an article in the Bureau of National Affairs’ Daily Environment Report.

The report quotes Jessica Barkas, an attorney from the EPA’s Chemical Control Division, as saying the agency is placing conditions — such as development of toxicity data, requiring carbon nanotubes to be embedded in a polymer or metal structure and requiring workers to use protective equipment — on firms that want to make new nanoscale chemicals.

Lynn Bergeson, an attorney speaking at a nanotech law conference this week, said the EPA considers carbon nanotubes to be “chemical substances distinct from graphite or other allotropes of carbon listed on the [Toxic Substances Control Act] Inventory.”

Barkas also said the EPA will eventually shift from its “current focus of collecting information to a focus of controlling risks.”

February 20, 2009: EPCOS AG is introducing what the Munich-based company is calling the world’s most compact packaged sensors for barometric pressure measurement, and it comes with the firm’s chip-sized MEMS packaging.

With dimensions of only 1.7×1.7×0.9 mm2, the components are many times smaller than comparable competitor products and open up numerous applications for portable electronics, the company said in a news release.

A further advantage of the new sensors is the cost-effective CSMP (chip-sized MEMS package) packaging technology developed by EPCOS, the news release said.

EPCOS also offers a sensor variant in a conventional package with a gel-protected stainless steel pressure port. With a footprint of only 3×3 mm2 the ASB1200E SMD pressure sensor enables the further miniaturization of barometric applications that are exposed to high humidity, the company said.


Tiny barometric pressure sensors open up numerous portable electronics applications, EPCOS says. (Photo courtesy of EPCOS AG)

February 20, 2009: The European Commission approved $606 million in government aid to a nanotechnology program led by STMicroelectronics, according to a Reuters report.

The money will help pay for Europe’s Nano2012 strategic investment program aimed at producing the next generation of integrated circuits.

“The Nano2012 program to develop new technologies for the manufacture of semiconductors in Europe is in line with the EU’s major research objectives,” EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement. “Its positive effects will far outweigh any distortion of competition that may result from the aid.”

February 19, 2009: SpectraFluidics Inc., which specializes in microfluidic- and nanotech-based chemical detection technology, recently signed a contract with the US Army to develop and commercialize its field-deployable chemical detector for explosives and biohazards.

SpectraFluidics will partner with UC Santa Barbara’s Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies (ICB) and the U.S. Army’s Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center to fully develop the highly sensitive and selective detector.

The device provides real-time sampling and detection of trace amounts of explosives vapor, the company said in a news release. The SpectraFluidics device is also valuable for detecting trace levels of illicit drugs and other forms of contraband, the company said.

The company’s patented technology involves the integration of free-surface microfluidics (FSF) and nanoparticle techniques with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).

February 19, 2009: APR Applied Pharma Research SA has acquired a patented nanocoating process for the preparation of biotech products that treat diseases in multiple therapeutic areas, the company announced in a news release.

APR is already developing specific applications of the resulting products in ophthalmology and dermatology, said the company, which did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition.

“We decided to acquire this new platform technology when we understood the great potential of combining a process based on nanocoating technology to totally biological compounds to obtain products with powerful healing capabilities and minimal side effects or tolerability issues,” Paolo Galfetti, APR’s CEO, said in the news release. “The products based on this new technology may unlock new therapeutic solutions to unmet needs in several critical therapeutic areas.”

APR has first targeted the treatment of eye injuries, including cataract, chronic and acute infected wounds, as well as surgically induced wounds and skin and eye infections, — areas in which initial tests made with the first product derived from the new technology showed most promising results, the company said.

APR has already performed several in vitro and in vivo pre-clinical tests studying the critical features of the first product obtained with the nanocoating process, including its chemical analysis, stability, toxicology, safety and efficacy with positive and promising results. Also a Phase II study in surgically induced wounds has been performed with excellent results, the company said, adding that APR is now ready to enter the first clinical studies in eye wound and cataract healing.