May 25, 2007– Nanopoint, Inc. has begun shipping its CT-1000 cellTRAY imaging system, designed to enable precise live cell experimentation and imaging while significantly reducing per-experiment costs.

Unlike standard well plate-based systems, cellTRAY provides for the isolation of cells into an array of micro-wells connected via fluidic channels — allowing researchers to observe individual cells throughout the experiment, automatically navigate the wells, and capture images of live cells over time. The cellTRAY is compatible with all optical microscopes and promises to benefit cell-based assays such as cell viability, apoptosis, and RNAi studies.

The cellTRAY promises to provide more capacity, require fewer cells per day, use significantly less reagent per experiment, generate less biological waste, and provide time lapse live cell imaging capabilities not found in other products on the market today. “The cellTRAY uses nanoliters of material and reagents, significantly reducing experiment costs while enabling new applications where the researcher has limited materials, such as primary cells,” says Nanopoint president Cathy Owen.

Pricing starts at $10,000.

May 24, 2007 — Ecology Coatings, a privately held developer of nanoengineered industrial coatings for manufacturing, has entered into a definitive agreement to merge with publicly held OCIS Corporation as part of an alternative public offering (APO) transaction. The closing of the merger is targeted for June 2007, and the merged company, to be named Ecology Coatings, is expected to trade on the OTC Bulletin Board.

OCIS will offer up to 31,800,000 shares of its common stock in exchange for the outstanding common stock of Ecology Coatings. Upon completion of the merger — expected in June 2007 — the shareholders of Ecology Coatings will hold approximately 95.2% of the common stock of the surviving public entity, while the current shareholders of OCIS will own approximately 4.8%.

The management of Ecology Coatings will operate the surviving public entity. Richard Stromback, Chairman of Ecology Coatings, said, “This agreement marks a significant step in the process of becoming a publicly held company.”

May 24, 2007 – In a new study released by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN), called EPA and Nanotechnology: Oversight for the 21st Century, former EPA assistant administrator for policy, planning and evaluation, J. Clarence (Terry) Davies, provides a roadmap for a new EPA to better handle the challenges of nanotechnology. “This new report seeks to encourage EPA, Congress, and others to create an intelligent oversight approach that empowers EPA and promotes investment and innovation in new nanotechnology products and processes,” said PEN director David Rejeski. “As both the chair and ranking minority member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology stated last year, ‘Nanotechnology is an area of research that could add billions of dollars to the U.S. economy, but that won’t happen if it is shrouded in uncertainty about its [environmental, health and safety] consequences.’ “

The report analyzes how nanotechnology can serve as a catalyst for change in EPA and existing regulatory frameworks. It identifies major areas that require transformation within the agency — including science, program integration, personnel, international activities and program evaluation — and spells out more than 25 steps that EPA, Congress, the president, the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative and the nanotechnology industry as a whole should take to improve the oversight of nanotechnology. Among its recommendations are:
— EPA should launch its proposed voluntary program to collect nanotechnology risk information and should begin immediately to revise the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to better deal with nanotechnology.
— EPA and industry should create a joint research institute to conduct scientific research on nanotechnology effects.
— EPA should set up and lead an interagency regulatory coordinating group for nanotechnology oversight.
— Congress should establish a temporary committee in each house to consider options for a nanotechnology oversight mechanism.
— Congress should provide an additional $50 million each year for research on the health and environmental effects of nanotechnology products and processes.
— Congress should remove constraints that limit EPA’s ability to require that companies collect and share necessary data and other information the agency needs to oversee nanotechnology.

Davies discusses the importance of public participation and dialogue throughout this process. He also examines the role of state and local governments.

According to William D. Ruckelshaus, former EPA administrator from 1970 to 1973 and again from 1983 to 1985, “For over thirty years, the EPA has dealt with the impacts of the last industrial revolution — the internal combustion engine, steam- generated electricity, and basic chemical synthesis. Today, another industrial revolution is occurring. It is being driven by nanotechnology and its convergence with information technology and biotechnology. Nanotechnology holds tremendous potential — for breakthroughs in medicine, in the production of clean water and energy, and in computers and electronics. It may be the single most important advance of this new century. But with its ability to fundamentally change the properties of matter, nanotechnology also may pose both the greatest challenge and biggest opportunity for EPA in its history. EPA needs to seriously consider the constructive and thoughtful changes that Davies puts forward in his report.”

EPA and Nanotechnology: Oversight for the 21st Century was commissioned by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, a partnership between the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

May 24, 2007 – Northern Louisiana’s The News Star reports that Louisiana Tech University has granted its first degree in nanosystems engineering to 23-year-old Joshua Michael Brown, who simultaneously earned an electrical engineering degree.

May 24, 2007 — VeruTEK Technologies, Inc. has completed its acquisition of publicly traded Streamscape Minerals, Inc., which will operate under the name VeruTEK, Inc. and will trade on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board under its new ticker symbol VTKT.OB.

The company has also announced the availability of its S-ISCO and S-ESCO coelution technologies designed to remedy environmental contamination from petroleum, chlorinated solvents, pesticides, herbicides, PCBs, dioxin, and other toxic chemicals “in place,” eliminating the need for costly excavation.

Traditional environmental remediation solutions involve the costly removal of vast quantities of contaminated soil. Often deeper contamination is left in place and the contaminants continue to impact the community. VeruTEK’s products promises safe treatment in situ by combining natural surfactants and oxidant chemistries in a manner that provides controlled dissolution and oxidation. The company says this is the first approach that holistically treats soil, groundwater, and soil gas contamination.

The products enable treatment to remove contaminants from soils, groundwater and soil vapor, even beneath existing houses and buildings. S-ISCO (surfactant-enhanced in-situ chemical oxidation) is a below ground coelute oxidant-cosolvent/surfactant mixture designed to destroy subsurface non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs).

S-ESCO (surfactant-enhanced ex-situ chemical oxidation) is an above-ground solution that combines in-situ soil mixing with ex-situ soil treatment and overcomes the inherent costs and limitations of excavation.

The environmental remediation market is estimated at $20 billion annually according to the EPA. Government mandated corporate reserves for remediation often exceed $100M and can exceed $1000M (SEC 2006).

May 22, 2007 — Agilent Technologies Inc. has introduced the Magnetic AC Mode III (MAC Mode III) controller, which it says greatly enhances the utility of Agilent’s nanotechnology measurement instruments and better enables researchers to customize their experiments. The MAC Mode III is designed for particular application in areas that require high resolution and force sensitivity, such as biology, polymers, and surface science. Built on field-proven technology, this gentle, nondestructive atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique is designed for imaging delicate samples in liquid or air.

MAC Mode III offers three user-configurable lock-in amplifiers, affording researchers versatility, higher accuracy and quicker time to results. It has a wider operating frequency range — up to 6 MHz — enabling scientists to investigate higher harmonic modes. Built-in Q control further enhances the resonance peak. Higher harmonic imaging provides contrast beyond that seen with fundamental amplitude and phase signals, allowing scientists to collect additional information about mechanical properties of the sample surface.

The Agilent MAC Mode III allows one-pass multi-channel detection for Kelvin force microscopy (KFM) and electric force microscopy (EFM). Simultaneous, high-accuracy topography and surface potential measurements are facilitated by a servo-on-height cantilever approach that is not susceptible to scanner drift. KFM/EFM offers excellent utility for measuring dielectric films, metal surfaces, piezoelectrics and conductor-insulator transitions.

MAC Mode III can be operated simultaneously with environmental control, temperature control, electrochemical control and controlled fluid exchange. Agilent’s acoustic AC mode is included with MAC Mode III.