Tag Archives: Small Times Magazine

Oct. 12, 2005 – Headwaters Inc. (NYSE: HW) announced that DegussaHeadwaters, a joint venture of Degussa AG of Dusseldorf, Germany, and Headwaters of South Jordan, Utah, is building a demonstration plant for the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide in Hanau-Wolfgang, Germany.

The company says it has been developing a new method of synthesizing hydrogen peroxide for direct use as an oxidant in chemical processes. It is planning to build, own and operate hydrogen peroxide plants for supply to chemical producers around the world.

The process uses a nanocatalyst developed by Headwaters to react hydrogen and oxygen to form hydrogen peroxide. The initial phase of activity by DegussaHeadwaters was the construction and operation of a pilot plant. It has successfully operated since the beginning of this year, leading to the next step of constructing of a demonstration plant. The new plant is scheduled to come on line in the second quarter of 2006.

Oct. 11, 2005 – Palo Alto, Calif.-based Nanosys Inc. announced it has entered into a multi-year development agreement with Sharp Corp. of Osaka, Japan, to develop display technologies incorporating Nanosys’ proprietary nanotechnology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sharp will collaborate and support efforts at both Nanosys and Sharp. This is the second major collaboration agreement announced between Nanosys and Sharp over the past 12 months. The first agreement focused on developing a new fuel cell technology for portable electronics. No other details were disclosed.

Oct. 11, 2005 – Nanometrics Inc. (Nasdaq: NANO), a supplier of advanced integrated and standalone metrology equipment for the semiconductor industry, announced the appointment of Ronald Beeson to the new position of corporate controller.

Beeson was most recently controller for VNUS Medical Technologies where he was part of the company’s IPO team in 2004. Prior to joining VNUS Medical, he was the chief financial officer for ECS Industries. Before ECS Industries, Beeson held controller and finance management positions with ACCO Brands.

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Oct. 11, 2005 – I’m sure I wasn’t the only person attending a recent conference in California who saw the irony in Eric Drexler giving the plenary talk in place of the International Society of Optical Engineering’s 2005 Visionary Award winner, Richard Smalley. Unfortunately, Smalley faced travel restrictions because of a cancer treatment he was undergoing. Needing to find a replacement quickly, conference organizers selected Drexler to lead off their nano session.

As most people in the industry are aware, there is a relatively long-standing debate between Drexler and Smalley regarding the vision of molecular manufacturing. Drexler, the founder of the Foresight Institute (now known as the Foresight Nanotech Institute), has based his career on the future of atom-by-atom and molecule-by-molecule assembly. Smalley argues that Drexler’s vision is not technically feasible.

Thus the irony in the speaker substitution. After getting past my initial surprise, though, I realized that Drexler’s selection wasn’t as inappropriate as it appeared, even if done by accident.

Smalley and Drexler are both visionaries and have contributed significantly to the field of nanotechnology. Smalley’s concept of nanotechnology parallels the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s focus on physical properties that occur in materials below 100 nanometers. Drexler believes that this definition is too broad because it covers making nanoscale products and not just nanoscale systems. As an astute colleague noted, this is probably more a fight over research dollars than staying true to Richard Feynman’s ideas.

Smalley won a Nobel Prize for his part in discovering buckminsterfullerenes. Deciding that nanotubes had more application promise than buckyballs, Smalley has been actively driving research in “buckytubes” at Rice University. He is also an entrepreneur, starting Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc., a Texas-based supplier of — what else — carbon nanotubes.

Drexler is most famous for writing “Engines of Creation” (1986), which is widely considered as the “first” book on nanotechnology. With roots in space research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Drexler was also the first, though I’m not sure how many more there have been, to earn a doctorate in molecular nanotechnology. Understanding the potential upside and downside to the technology, Drexler has both purposefully driven research forward and raised cautionary flags.

Both men share a desire to make a positive impact on the world. Foresight has a mission to promote nanotechnologies that may help solve some of the major global challenges such as energy, clean water and human quality of life.

Smalley has taken a more focused approach and actively promotes nanotechnology research for energy solutions. And not just incremental improvements are on his radar: He wants to see a replacement for fossil fuels, preferably driven by nanotechnology.

Lastly, science is about debate. If we believed what other people said, we would still think the world was flat and that the universe revolved around me — oops, I meant the Earth. At the SPIE conference, I gave a talk on nanotechnology applications in the market today. I asked the mostly technical audience if they believed molecular manufacturing would be a reality in the next 20 to 30 years. About half said yes, and half said no. Fortunately, the debate on molecular manufacturing isn’t likely to end any time soon.

Why fortunately? Because this is the kind of debate that gets the blood boiling, the mind spinning and the younger generation inspired. In a world of ever-increasing population, pollution and limited resources, we need dreams to drive research and development. Nanotechnology has captured the imagination of the general public and we would be foolish not to take advantage of the momentum currently behind it.

A similar kind of dream — space travel — took us to the moon and gave us Tang. Revolutionary visions can bring about evolutionary change. In reality, space travel hasn’t been fully realized yet. We are still just orbiting the Earth, and even that is in jeopardy. (The shuttle landed safely the morning I began this column — big sigh of relief.) However, even with the promise not yet achieved, the space program has led to significant commercial advances in many industries like aerospace, automotive, consumer and defense.

I see the same with the pursuit of molecular manufacturing. Who knows if we will ever see a computer being generated from bottom-up assembly? (Side note: The new nanofactory animation film released by Nanorex needs some work if it is really going to inspire.) In the end, does it really matter? The goal is to encourage great minds to achieve great things along the long nano road ahead.

Oct. 11, 2005 – Arrowhead Research Corp. (Nasdaq:ARWR), a company that funds nanotechnology research and develops companies, announced it accelerated its investment of an additional $3 million to Insert Therapeutics Inc., a majority-owned subsidiary.

The company says its lead anti-cancer drug, IT-101, has showed promise across a wide range of cancers. Insert Therapeutics is currently preparing to enter IT-101 into human clinical trials at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif.

Oct. 10, 2005 — Dendritic Nanotechnologies Inc. of Mt. Pleaseant, Mich., announced it has entered into one of the first characterization collaborations with the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory, an organization established by the National Cancer Institute to foster collaboration between the government and the private sector.

The agreement will focus on the characterization by the lab of Dendritic’s STARBURST dendrimers as MRI contrast agents for sensitive, non-invasive cardiovascular diagnostics. Dendritic focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of dendrimer technologies to create new products for the identification and treatment of disease.

The intent of the studies is to generate data in support of an investigative new drug filing with the U.S. Food and Drug Agency. It is estimated that the characterization efforts will take approximately 12 to 15 months.

In 2005, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Cancer Institute established the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory to perform preclinical efficacy and toxicity testing of nanoscale materials.

Oct. 7, 2005 — Apogee Technology Inc. (AMEX: ATA), a provider of audio integrated circuits and an emerging MEMS device supplier, reported that it has sold the assets of its audio division, including its Direct Digital Amplifier technology to SigmaTel Inc.

The engineering and marketing staff related to the audio division will be offered positions at SigmaTel to ensure a seamless transfer of the business. In connection with the asset purchase, Sigmatel will pay Apogee $9.4 million in cash plus a one-year earn-out of up to $4.5 million.

Apogee’s chairman and CEO, Herbert Stein, said in a prepared statement that Apogee plans to focus on its core strengths by using the funds from the sale to enhance the development of its MEMS/nanotechnology division product lines.

Recently the company announced its family of Sensilica pressure sensors and says it has made rapid progress in developing MEMS based medical devices.

Oct. 7, 2005 — Nanosphere Inc., a Northbrook, Ill., nanotechnology-based molecular diagnostics company, announced Michael McGarrity has joined the company as chief marketing officer.

McGarrity has more than 17 years of sales and marketing experience in the medical device industry and joins Nanosphere after 13 years with Stryker Corp., a medical device company with products in orthopedics and other medical specialties. He was most recently vice president of marketing for Stryker Instruments, a $700 million division.

Oct. 7, 2005 – Cabot Microelectronics Corp. (NASDAQ:CCMP), a supplier of chemical mechanical planarization polishing slurries to the semiconductor industry, announced that it has purchased the assets of Surface Finishes Co. Inc., a privately-held developer of precision machining techniques at the sub-nanometer level.

The acquisition is designed to accelerate Cabot Microelectronics’ Engineered Surface Finishes initiative, by which the company seeks to leverage its expertise in formulation and polishing techniques for the semiconductor industry to address other areas where shaping, enabling and enhancing the performance of surfaces is critical.

Oct. 6, 2005 — Invitrogen Corp. (Nasdaq: IVGN) announced it has made a pair of acquisitions. The Carlsbad, Calif., provider of life science technologies for disease research, drug discovery, and commercial bioproduction announced it has acquired Quantum Dot Corp. as well as the BioPixels business unit of BioCrystal Ltd. Terms were not disclosed.

The two acquisitions will help support Invitrogen’s molecular probes business, according to a news release issued by Invitrogen. In addition, Invitrogen announced that it had secured an exclusive license for a novel nanocluster technology from Georgia Tech Research Corp. Invitrogen says that the combination of the acquisition and the license will help it create new products for the visualization and understanding of cellular processes, molecular interactions, and other factors essential for diagnosing and treating disease.

Quantum Dot, of Hayward, Calif., launched its first product based on nanobiotechnology, the Qdot 605 Streptavidin Conjugate, in 2002 and has broadened its product line significantly in the ensuing years. Qdots are semiconductor nanocrystals used in life science and other research. BioPixels, of Westerville, Ohio, provides novel coatings and metal alloys for semiconductor nanocrystals for use in automating assays of complex biological samples. Invitrogen will seek to combine both companies’ technologies to make smaller, brighter and less toxic particles.

In a separate move, Invitrogen also announced it has closed on its previously-announced acquisition of Biosource International Inc. The company says the deal supports its growing collection of protein and primary antibody products gained from other acquisitions completed earlier this year.