GENERAL COMPANY NEWS
• Zyvex Labs has announced its first spin out – NanoMed. The new firm was started by Rob Burgess, former vice president of research and development at Zyvex Instruments, and Gareth Hughes former group leader of life sciences at Zyvex Corporation. NanoMed is focused on the application of nanotechnology in life sciences and is seeking to develop research grade reagents and cutting-edge therapeutics.
• Houston Technology Center (HTC) has launched an initiative to position Houston as the gateway to the US for Mexican and Latin American technology companies. Dubbed HTC-Americas, the program will focus on five key sectors: energy, information technology, life sciences, nanotechnology and NASA/aerospace technology.
"The first phase of the program will target Mexican investors and companies, as well as introduce US companies to Mexico, a market highlighted by steady growth, economic and political stability and a rising demand for technologies that will help manage internal needs and assets in key sectors such as oil and gas, and healthcare," explained Walter Ulrich, president and CEO of Houston Technology Center.
• AlwaysReady, a subsidiary of mPhase Technologies, has announced that its Smart Nanobattery has passed US Army stress testing. The firm's design survived a 50,000 g-force test at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, which involved shooting several Smart Nanobattery prototypes out of an air gun simulator with a force calculated to exceed 50,000 g. Following the launch, measurements confirmed that the batteries continued to function as specified.
• Nanobac Pharmaceuticals intends to participate in the High Risk Plaque Initiative – a study conducted by BG-Medicine together with Merck, AstraZeneca, Royal Philips Electronics and Humana. The firm hopes to validate and qualify the role of calcified nanoparticles in heart disease.
• Third-order nanotechnologies says that its patent applications describing various chromophore architectures are now being considered at national level in Australia, Canada, China, Europe (via the European patent convention), Japan and the US. The company plans to use organic polymers to enable high-speed communication systems and expects to complete a prototype optical modulator by the end of this year.
• Boat maker Yamaha Motor Corporation, US, is using a proprietary nano-engineered material to make its hulls, decks and liners stronger and lighter. Dubbed NanoXcel, the filler can yield weight savings of 25%.
"Consumers will instantly be able to feel the difference provided by NanoXcel," said Mark Speaks, president of Yamaha Watercraft Group. "The lighter weight material, with its remarkably smooth finish, is more nimble and agile in the water than anything else we've sold."
Models start at $11,599 if you fancy putting NanoXcel to the test.
ANALYSIS AND AWARDS
• Cientifica says that nanotechnologies are set to "Shake Up" and "Shake Out" the drug delivery market in its latest report. Analysts project that the total market for nanotechnology-enabled drug delivery will rise to $26 billion by 2012 from its current size of $3.39 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate of 37%.
• Jason Rolland, co-founder of Liquidia Technologies and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), has won the 2007 National Starch & Chemical Company award for outstanding graduate research in polymer science and engineering.
His PhD thesis examined novel applications of perfluoropolyether (PFPE) materials such as antifouling coatings, microfluidics, mould-based lithography for nano-patterned films and nanoparticle fabrication.
Rolland and colleagues from UNC founded Liquidia Technologies in 2004 to exploit the properties of PFPEs having recognized a market need for precisely engineered nanparticles and films.