SEPARATING THE HYPE AND THE BUZZ 041509

This took some time. A lot happened in April. There were three notable breakthroughs, nine (9) noteworthy news stories, and quite a few honorable mentions. My students convinced me to work harder on my hyperlinks. We read every article that comes across our desks and aggressively search out everything we can find.

Tell your friends and let me know which format you prefer.

BREAKTHROUGH – NANOSCALE RINGS

Researchers at Cal Tech and Berkeley report a direct catalytic route for making nanoscale rings with potential applications in drug delivery and organic photovoltaic devices.

See C&EN, April 20, 2009 and J Am Chem Soc,

BREAKTHROUGH – NANOPARTICLE THIN FILMS

Researchers at MIT have used capillary condensation to functionalize inorganic nanoparticle coatings that could be used to make transparent thin films for applications like imaging devices and memory storage. The technique also bypasses the need for toxic, co-solvents during processing.

See NanotechWeb, April 24, 2009.

BREAKTHROUGHS – DNA SEQUENCING

Researchers at Oxford and Oxford Nanopore Technologies demonstrated that the four standard DNA nucleotides—adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine can be distinguished from one another reliably by the amount of current they each block as they flow through a nanopore. Taking DNA apart one nucleotide at a time, directing the nucleotides sequentially into a nanopore, and detecting them with an electrical current meter may seem an unlikely DNA-sequencing concept, but it is closer than ever to being a reality.

See C&EN, March 9, 2009 and Nature Nanotechnology, DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2009.12.

NEWSWORTHY

1. AUSTRALIAN TRADE UNION DEMAND NANO-REGISTRY

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is calling for a mandatory national register of who is importing, manufacturing, supplying and selling nanomaterials.

See Sydney Morning News, April 13, 2009.

2. PRINTABLE ELECTRONICS

Researchers from ETH Zurich report a new technique that uses flame spray synthesis in combination with a simple in-situ functionalization step to synthesize graphene coated copper nanoparticles which are air-stable and can be easily handled at ambient conditions.

See Nanowerk, April 24, 2009.

3. FLEXIBLE BATTERIES USING VIRUSES

Researchers at MIT use viruses to build both the positively and negatively charged ends of a battery, the cathode and anode. The virus was coaxed into binding with iron phosphate and then carbon nanotubes to create a highly conductive material. While the prototype battery is currently the size of a coin, the scientists believe it can be scaled and be used to create flexible batteries that can take the shape of their container, which is perfect for mobile or small devices.

See BBC News, April 2, 2009.

4A. SOLAR CELLS USING DIATOMS

Researchers at OSU and Portland State U have created a new way to make "dye-sensitized" solar cells using diatoms, in which photons bounce around like they were in a pinball machine, striking these dyes and producing electricity. This technology may be slightly more expensive than some existing approaches to make dye-sensitized solar cells, but can potentially triple the electrical output.

See Science Daily, April 9, 2009.

4B. SOLAR ADVANCES USING RESIDUE

Researcher from Northeastern U and NIST discovered, serendipitously, that a residue of a process used to build arrays of titania nanotubes-a residue that wasn't even noticed before this-plays an important role in improving the performance of the nanotubes in solar cells that produce hydrogen gas from water. By controlling the deposition of potassium on the surface of the nanotubes, engineers can achieve significant energy savings in a promising new alternate energy system.

See AtoZ Nano, April 24, 2009.

5. GAS STORAGE

Researchers at the Ural Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences report using molecular dynamics to model the behavior of a lock and fill nanocapsule. The closed-cage design could offer a safe and effective way of storing gases such as methane under normal conditions.

See NanotechWeb, March 17, 2009.

6. OIL FROM ALGAE

Researchers from Ames and Iowa State U. reportedly developed "nanofarming" technology that safely harvests oil from the algae so the pond-based "crop" can keep on producing.

See AtoZ Nano, April 24, 2009.

7. NANO-AVIATION

Researchers from Canada’s FP Innovations have unveiled plans for a factory that will use nanotechnology to extract cellulose from wood and use it to form composite materials for airplanes.

See Blog Wired, April 24, 2009

8. LISTERIA SENSOR

Researchers from Purdue and IIT are reporting development of a new biosensor for use in a faster, more sensitive test for detecting the deadliest strain of Listeria food poisoning bacteria.

See Nanowerk, April 22, 2009

and

Analytical Chemsitry, March 24, 2009.

9. SILVER WORKING GROUP

The Silver Institute and the Silver Research Consortium announced the formation of the Silver Nanotechnology Working Group (SNWG). The SNWG is an industry effort intended to foster the collection of data on silver nanotechnology in order to advance the science and public understanding of the beneficial uses of silver nanoparticles in a wide-range of consumer and industrial products

See AtoZ Nano, April 24, 2009.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

EU “NO DATA, NO MARKET”

The European Parliament's environment committee this week adopted a report by Swedish Green MEP Carl Schlyter which calls for tighter controls on nanotechnology, including the application of the 'no data, no market' principle contained in the REACH Directive. The own-initiative, non-binding report calls for products containing nanotechnology which are already on the market to be withdrawn until safety assessments can be made.

See EuroActiv, April 2, 2009.

EU FUNDS PPPs FOR GREEN REVOLUTION 2

€1.2 billion will be earmarked for R&D as part of the Factories for the Future programme; €1 billion will be dedicated to researching energy efficient buildings; and the much-vaunted Green Car Initiative is worth a total of €5 billion. The first calls for research projects linked to these PPPs are expected in July 2009, with the Commission keen to see the first projects underway in spring 2010.

See EuChemMS Brussels News Update, May 2009.

RUSSIA INVESTING IN CANADIAN NANO

According to Canwest News Service, a state-owned Russian venture capital fund is poised to pump millions of dollars into Canada's fledgling nanotechnology industry. The fund is RUSNANO and is one of the largest technology capital funds on the planet.

See Canwest News, April 13, 2009.

CLINICAL STUDY ANNOUNCED

NanoBio Corp. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the Phase 1 clinical study of NB-1008, a seasonal influenza vaccine administered via a nasal dropper.

See Nanowerk, April 24, 2009.

CANCER AND GOLD NANORODS

Researcher at U Missouri announced a systematic investigation on the design and development of targeted gold nanorods. A recent result of this work has been the design of a novel peptide-based nanovector for carrying drug payloads to cancer sites.

See Nanowerk, April 15, 2009 and Nano Letters, April 7, 2009

MELANOMA RESEARCH USING GOLD NANOSPHERES.

UC Santa Cruz, Berkeley, and the Houston MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston reported using hollow gold nanospheres to enhance the cell-killing effects of photothermal ablation. The researchers equipped the nanospheres with a protein fragment that targets melanoma cells while avoiding healthy skin cells. When exposed to near-infrared light, which penetrates deeply through the skin, the nanospheres heat up and destroy the cancer cells.

See NanotechWeb. April 24, 2009.

DRUG DELIVERY RESEARCH

Researchers at Brown U have come up with a means for delivering the cancer-fighting drug cisplatin directly to tumor cells in breast-cancer patients. The researchers created a dumbbell-like twin nanoparticle by attaching a gold nanoparticle to an iron-oxide nanoparticle.

See NanotechWeb. April 24, 2009. and J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131 4216.

A Purdue team reported similar findings combining gold nanorods with magnetic iron-oxide particles.

See NanotechWeb. April 24, 2009 and Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 48 2759.

BREAST CANCER BIOMARKERS

Researchers at Duke U have demonstrated multiplexed detection of breast cancer biomarkers using structures dubbed "molecular sentinel" (MS) nanoprobes.

See NanotechWeb, May 19, 2009.and Nanotechnology. February 11, 2009.

ORTHOPEDICS AND DENTISTRY DRUG DELIVERY

Titanium dioxide nanotubes might be incorporated into orthopaedic or dental implants to deliver drugs in a local area over a period of several weeks. So say researchers at the universities of California, San Francisco, and Pennsylvania State who have shown that the nanotubes can release albumin, a large protein molecule, as well as sirolimus and paclitaxel, common small molecule drugs.

See NanotechWeb, April 3, 2009.

NANOGENERATORS

Researchers at Georgia Tech and U Wisconsin-Madison announced an advance in nanogenerators. Nanoscale generators can turn ambient mechanical energy--vibrations, fluid flow, and even biological movement—into a power source. Now researchers have combined a nanogenerator with a solar cell to create an integrated mechanical- and solar-energy-harvesting device.

See Technology Review, April 9, 2009.

NCSU BATTERY RESEARCH

Researchers from North Carolina State University are using an industrially viable electrospinning technique and subsequent carbonization processes to fabricate porous carbon nanofibres (PCNFs). These prepared PCNFs can provide fast lithium charge/discharge kinetics.

See NanotechWeb, April 24, 2009 and Nanotechnology.

CHEMICAL SENSORS

Imperial College researchers announced developments in metallic nanostructure sensing involving a device that could be tailored to detect different chemicals by decorating the nanostructure surface with specific 'molecular traps' that bind the chosen target molecules. Once bound, the target molecules would change the colors that the device absorbs and scatters, alerting the sensor to their presence.

See Science Daily, April 13, 2009.

NO MORE PAINFUL INJECTIONS

The end of deep, painful vaccine injections is in sight. One of the first widespread applications of nanotechnology in medicine could be a painless, needle-free vaccine "nanopatch" being developed by Australian scientists.

See Sydney Morning News, April 23, 2009

NEW BOOK ON COMMUNICATION AND NANO

The book, entitled Nanotechnology, Risk and Communication (published by Palgrave Macmillan 2009) analyses the way the traditional media has covered the early development of nanotechnology. It also uses that coverage to contribute to the debate about the effectiveness of scientists and journalists in communicating science-related stories to the wider public. The book is co-authored by Stuart Allan of Bournemouth University.

See AtoZ Nano, April 23, 2009.

INDIAN NANO DEGREE

Maitreyi College, Delhi University, will be offering a full-time postgraduate diploma in nanotechnology from this academic year.

See The Times of India, April 6, 2009.

I am struggling to keep up.