Science and Enterprise

Tag: nanotechnology

  • Bay Area Consortium to Fund Large-Scale Solar R&D

    The Bay Area Photovoltaic Consortium (BAPVC) unveiled its first research grants aimed at making utility-scale solar power cost-competitive by the end of the decade. The new funds from the consortium — an industry-backed venture led by Stanford University and the University of California-Berkeley — total $7.5 million. The grants will support 18 projects at BAPVC…

  • Low-Cost Nanoscale Catalyst Splits Hydrogen from Water

    Researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, part of the U.S. Department of Energy, have developed a new electrocatalyst that generates hydrogen gas from water cleanly and with much less expensive materials than current catalysts. Their findings are described online this week in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition (paid subscription required). Traditional methods…

  • Engineered Nanoparticles Target Drug-Resistant Bacteria

    Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have developed nanoscale particles that can deliver antibiotics in larger quantities, but directly to the targeted bacteria to overcome drug resistance. The findings of the engineering, computer science, and health sciences team appear online in the journal ACS Nano (paid…

  • Nanotech Solution Helps Enable Cancer Drug Delivery

    Researchers at University of North Carolina medical school in Chapel Hill have found a process for delivering the cancer drug wortmannin using nanoscale particles, a drug that had not been deliverable using traditional methods. Their findings appear online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (paid subscription required). Wortmannin had been considered…

  • Nanotech Composites Aid Tooth Cavity Repair

    Researchers at the University of Maryland dental school have developed cavity-filling composites based on nanotechnology that kill bacteria and regenerate the tooth structure. The university has filed patents and is seeking licensees to commercialize the technology. The work of Maryland dental school professor Huakun (Hockin) Xu aims to improve on the standard dental fillings that…

  • Glare-Free Water-Resistant Nanotech Glass Developed

    Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new type of glass that eliminates almost all reflection and causes water to bounce off. The team of MIT graduate students, faculty, and former postdoc — now at North Carolina State University — published their findings earlier this month in the journal ACS Nano (paid subscription…

  • Start-Up Commercializing Genetic Microfluidic Chip

    Aquila Diagnostic Systems in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is taking to market a technology that collects small blood samples on a microfluidic chip for multiple genetic tests. The technology, now in prototype, was developed at University of Alberta, also in Edmonton, and licensed to Aquila for commercialization when the company was formed in 2009. The chip…

  • Nanoscale Film Coating Strengthens Joint Implants

    Chemical engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed an ultra-thin film that can strengthen the bond of knee or hip implants and promote bone growth. The findings are described in a recent issue of the journal Advanced Materials (paid subscription required). Knee and hip replacements are becoming more common, with some 773,000 Americans having…

  • Boron Added to Carbon Nanotubes Produce Super Oil Sponge

    Materials scientists at Rice University in Houston have devised a material that can absorb large quantities of oil by adding the element boron to carbon nanotubes. The Rice researchers, joined by colleagues in the U.S., Belgium, Japan, Spain, and Mexico published their findings Friday in the journal Scientific Reports. Rice graduate student Daniel Hashim (pictured…

  • Biotech Licenses Brain-Nervous System Treatment Technology

    Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel says it has licensed a technology from its labs that crosses the blood-brain barrier to deliver drugs for treating disorders of the brain and central nervous system. The V-Smart technology, as its called, was licensed exclusively to Lauren Sciences LLC, a privately held biotechnology company in New York.…