BANGALORE, Nov 7 Asia Pulse - IMEC, an independent research institute based in Belgium, and Indian Institute of Science here on Monday announced a collaboration in carrying out research in nanoelectronics, nanotechnology and related cutting edge areas.

A Memorandum of Understanding in this context was signed at the IISc campus in the presence of visiting Belgium Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who termed it as an "enormous step forward" in cooperation between the two countries in the semiconductor technologies area.

IMEC officials said the collaboration would focus on new material for 45-nm CMOs technology, technologies for post-CMOs era and on radio frequency and MEMS technologies.

They acknowledged India is conducting first-rate research in nanoelectronics and nanotechnology. "India is also fast emerging in semi-conductor manufacturing", said an official of IMEC, which focuses on research on the next generation of chips and systems, and on enabling technologies for ambient intelligence.

IISc Director Prof P Balaram, said a research facility for nanoelectronics and nanotechnlogy would be set up as part of the collaboration.

The tie-up with IISc comes a day after IMEC, whose research seeks to bridge the gap between fundamental research at universities and technology development, signed a memorandum of understanding for semiconductor R&D with SemIndia, a leading Indian company in the area.

New technology finds, flags, and kills tumor cells.

By Susan Nasr

This nanocell, designed by University of Texas researchers, fights cancer in several ways. Using targeting molecules (orange triangles), it finds and enters cancer cells; then it releases chemotherapy drugs (red hexagons) and imaging particles (brown circles) into the cells from its core. The drugs attack the tumor while the imaging particles help doctors monitor tumor death. (Credit: Jinming Gao, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas)

A new nanotechnology-based treatment developed by researchers at the University of Texas's Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas could double the effectiveness of cancer drugs without increasing side effects, while allowing doctors to see immediately whether the treatment is working.

Nanotechnology-based drug treatments are already starting to be approved for use, but so far they are neither very precise nor very potent. Current cancer-fighting nanomedicine, which involve little more than nanoscopic containers packed with chemotherapy drugs, reaches tumors by leaking through holes in tumor blood vessels and gradually releasing a drug. To kill appreciable amounts of the tumor this way, doctors must flood the body with these drug-bearing nanocarriers, says Jinming Gao, associate professor of oncology and pharmacology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. These can get soaked up by the body's natural filters, such as the liver and spleen, in which they can cause side effects, he says.

What's more, doctors can't get a good view of what's happening once nanocarriers are administered. They don't know whether the nanocarriers are reaching targets or delivering drugs until they remove tissue from the patient, the tumor starts to shrink, or the first side effects appear. It's like fighting cancer in a "black box," Gao says.

Now a growing cadre of researchers are developing next-generation nanomedicine platforms that can both deliver drugs only to cancer cells and allow doctors to monitor the progress of the treatment. The University of Texas system delivers both an anti-cancer drug and a highly effective magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent to allow doctors to see that the drug is being delivered to a tumor. The nanocarriers are made of polymers with an inner core that traps doxorubicin, a common chemotherapy drug, and iron-oxide particles that show up clearly with MRI. Polymer strands on the outside of the nanocarrier bear targeting molecules that are recognized only by tumor blood-vessel cells. The nanocarriers latch on to the vessel cells, and the cells engulf the carriers. The polymer releases the drug once inside the cell, where it is most effective.

Tests on cells grown in the lab showed promising results, says Gao. Nanocarriers equipped with the targeting molecule delivered twice the amount of drug and killed twice the number of cells (94 percent) as those without it, he reported online in the journal Nano Letters."We could detect as few as 50,000 cells," Gao says. Studies in mice are now in progress.

At this point, the nanocarriers only target tumors' blood vessels, so they can't image or attack tumors without vasculature. This includes most tumors smaller than about two cubic millimeters. But Gao says tumors in the dangerous process of spreading, or metastasizing, are large, have well-established vessels, and can be directly attacked.

And unlike other targeted cancer therapies, he adds, the nanocarriers are easy to modify. As researchers discover more targets unique to cancer cells, the nanocarriers can be equipped to find, image, and destroy other types of cells within tumors and also different types of cancer, he says. He is now working on a system that directly targets lung-cancer cells.

The clearer images created by nanoparticles delivered directly into cancer cells could ultimately allow many new possibilities, says Michael Bonder, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Delaware's Cancer Translational Research Center. Doctors could detect smaller tumors and possibly watch them metastasize, or spread cell by cell to new parts of the body.

But toxicity remains a risk, even with the targeted nanocarriers, cautions Glen Kwon, associate professor of pharmaceutics at the University of Wisconsin. He says Gao's team should run tests to ensure that minimal amounts of the drug leak out as the nanocarriers travel through the bloodstream. "This is often a major challenge for nanocarrier systems in drug delivery," Kwon says.

Patrick Winter, assistant professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, adds that it's questionable how many nanocarriers will reach their target. "Even the best targeting strategies" only get a small fraction of the nanocarriers into the tumor, and the rest end up in normal tissues, he says.

No matter how well the new nanocarriers perform, some will likely end up in "clearance organs like the liver and spleen," which "could lead to side effects," he says.

Gao counters that so few nanocarriers will be injected that even if a large fraction missed their target, no side effects would occur.

But the new nanocarriers are promising as "a triple threat to a cancer cell," says Robert Sikes, director of the Laboratory for Cancer Ontogeny and Therapeutics at the University of Delaware. "They seek out, display the location, and deliver the lethal blow to dividing cancer cells," he says.
Copyright Technology Review 2006.

http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17679&ch=biotech

SINGAPORE, NOVEMBER 1: Bangalore-based nanotechnology firm Qtech Nanosystems has decided to transfer its operations as it seeks to utilise the city-state's R&D infrastructure, strong intellectual property protection regime and venture capitalist funds.

The technology team of the company, which was established in 2004, will shortly relocate to Singapore to manage its Research and Development operations, an Economic Development Board spokesperson said today at the ongoing four-day Global Entropolis, Singapore, 2006.

Qtech is a nanotechnology R&D start-up company that allows mechanical systems to position devices and tools accurately in the nanometre range.
The company, which won an award from India's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for its work in nanotechnology, has plans to penetrate various markets like, defence and semiconductors.

Besides Qtech, two other nanotechnology companies--Atomistix Asia Pacific from Denmark and Quantum Precision Instruments Asia, Australia--have shown interest to develop and expand their business in Singapore.

http://www.financialexpress.com/latest_full_story.php?content_id=145179

mPhase Technologies, today announced that it is planning to show the latest prototypes of its nanobattery at the National Nano Engineering Conference in Boston next week.

mPhase who was one of last year's winners of the Nano 50 award from NASA Tech Briefs for its Nanobattery is a silver sponsor of the National Nano Engineering Conference, co-sponsored by NASA Tech Briefs.

"Our Nanobattery was featured in this month's Wired magazine as a radical new approach to battery design," said Ron Durando, mPhase CEO. To read an electronic copy of the article, please (click here)

Durando added, "We are looking forward to showing our progress in our effort to build a better battery."

The NNEC program will feature the latest nanoscale engineering breakthroughs impacting power and energy, electronics and communications, bio-medicine, manufacturing, test and measurement and health and safety.

The National Nano Engineering Conference (NNEC) will be held November 9-10, 2006 at the Boston Marriot Newton. Nanotech Briefs is a co-sponsor of the NASA Tech Briefs National Nano Engineering Conference, a premier event focusing on the latest engineering breakthroughs in nanotechnology and MEMS.

Posted November 3rd, 2006

http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=3282

A nanotechnology company that invented a form of waterproof paper said on Tuesday that it will go public through a reverse merger, a process that is gaining popularity in the industry.

Ecology Coatings, based in Akron, Ohio, recently acquired OCIS, a "shell" company that is traded over-the-counter and does not have any current operations.

By subsuming OCIS, Ecology Coatings can essentially go public and raise capital through the public markets, said Rich Stromback, the former CEO who is now chairman.

Several nanotechnology start-ups in recent years have found themselves in a financing dilemma. These companies generally specialize in coming up with new chemical compounds and materials for old-time industry players such as paint makers, fuel refineries, plastics manufacturers. Ecology Coatings, for example, has devised an industrial coating that functions like paint but dries far more rapidly, increasing production time and reducing hazardous fumes.

It also, by accident, came up with a coating that makes ordinary paper impervious to water and mold.

Unlike Web 2.0 companies, nanotech companies need large capital budgets to build factories and laboratories. The payoff can take several years rather than just a few months. Venture capitalists once enthused about the possibility of nanotech have thus migrated to Internet companies and energy start-ups. Only a few nanotech companies have held initial public offerings, and none have caused much of a ripple in the public markets.

"This is where the old (venture) financing models broke down," Stromback said. Nanotech is "great, new technology, but it is addressing old markets."

Ecology Coatings also announced on Tuesday that Tom Krotine, a chemical-industry veteran, has joined the company as president and CEO.

The company is small. It has five employees and will have about $100,000 in revenue this year. Nonetheless, large companies have approached it regarding acquisition. Ecology Coatings also licenses intellectual property.

Other small companies in the industry, such as Altair Nanotechnologies, which has developed a lithium ion battery for cars, have also undergone reverse mergers.

http://news.com.com/Waterproof-paper+company
+to+go+public/2100-11746_3-6133191.html