Nanotech Pie

How it's done

Today a parking lot; tomorrow a nanotechnology research building that could cost upwards of $80 million.

That, in a nutshell, is the present and future of a space near 33rd and Walnut streets. The lot, which sits next to the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, is slated to hold the new facility as part of Penn's eastward expansion.

It is also emblematic of the rapid rise of nanotech - and of the amount of money being invested in accelerating the race to grab a share of it.

The futuristic discipline, which deals with materials on the scale of billionths of a meter, is believed to have the potential to yield big advances in a wide variety of fields from medicine to fuel storage.

Along with prestige for those who make the advances, "There's also the expectation that some of this technology will be commercialized and will result in patents that will bring in money," said Tomas Isakowitz, director of corporate research and development for the vice provost for research.

And as investment in nanotechnology increases, competition for the patenting of new discoveries is rapidly intensifying.

Penn is determined not to get left behind.

"This is a very important area for Penn, and it's going to have a large impact on science over the next few years," Isakowitz said.

The impact of nanotech-based products on the marketplace could be just as big. Both public and private sectors have been eager to invest in the potential for new discoveries, and total funding for nanotechnology research reached $9.6 billion in 2005, according to a study by the research-and-advisory firm Lux Research.

Penn has gotten its share of that money. A study by Penn State University puts Penn at No. 8 among colleges and universities for nanotechnology funding from 2002 to 2004.

Penn's Nano/Bio Interface Center was established in 2004 on a $30 million initial grant. The Nanotechnology Institute, an alliance between Penn, Drexel University and the Ben Franklin Technology Authority, received an initial grant of $10.5 million in 2001.

According to Hugo FitzGerald, manager of nanotechnology and licensing at the Center for Technology Transfer -which manages Penn patents, licenses and trademarks - most federal funding for the science goes to universities.

And all the attention and funding have resulted in a science that seems to be on the verge of leaving the laboratory in the form of a wide range of useful products.

In recent years, Penn researchers have nano-engineered hollow molecules that can potentially carry drugs to targeted areas of the body, such as tumors.

Graduate student Brian Edwards recently invented "electric tweezers," which allow researchers to move microscopic particles using electric fields.

Earlier this year, Penn was named the top school in the nation for nanotechnology research by Small Times Magazine, a nanotechnology publication.

Others in the field also realize the financial potential of patenting nanotech advances, as evidenced by recent events in the nanotechnology field. This morning, the Nanotechnology Institute - of which Penn is part - is taking part a forum in the Philadelphia suburbs on commercializing nanotechnology products, specifically those that can help to improve energy storage and application.

And with such marketable developments, all the royalties for many years will go to the first university - or company - that can get a patent, resulting in a rush on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

"There is a sort of land-grab going on in nanotechnology. Very broad patents are being filed, and the idea behind that is to stake out a territory," FitzGerald said.

While the massive increases in nanotechnology patenting is a good sign of scientific progress, officials from the Engineering School warn of potential problems associated with this new boom. "Everyone's predicting a huge era of patent-infringement cases," in addition to a dramatic increase in new discoveries, he said.

Who's doing it

Stem cells' ability to turn into more specialized body tissue has made them a topic of interest in the search for better treatment of disorders or injuries such as Parkinson's disease, muscular dystrophy and damage to the spinal cord.

For a long time, researchers believed they had to inject stem cells with steroids or other substances in order to generate the kind of tissue they desired.

Recently, however, Engineering professor Dennis Discher, along with a team of Penn researchers, discovered that the physical environment of adult stem cells is just as crucial as the chemical environment in predicting tissue production.

Specifically, Discher's team found that the firmness of the substances into which the stem cells were placed helped determine what type of body tissue - muscle or nerve, for example - the cells became. A patent application for the research is pending.

Earlier this year, Discher was also involved in a study that found that certain biodegradable nanoparticles could kill human breast tumors when infused with cancer-fighting drugs.

In her laboratory at Penn, Engineering professor Shu Yang - one of Technology Review's 100 Top Young Innovators in 2004 - studies nanoscale-polymer science and its practical applications. In one of her research projects this year, Yang and her research team developed a material combining molecules that attract water and others that repel it. A patent application for the discovery was completed in January.

The advance could offer a new, quicker and more efficient means of moving drugs and nutrients to specific areas of the human body. Researchers say that possible applications range from simple ice packs to deeply penetrating "cryo-probes" used in clinical situations to freeze tissues such as tumors. Researchers have specifically focused on the delivery of certain anti-cancer drugs.

Yang's lab has also worked with "nanopillars," which can mimic super-adhesive surfaces. A patent for the nanopillars was completed in September. Both patents are pending.

Faster computer processors? Teeny-tiny antennas? Individual molecules communicating with each other through an optical signal? All of these applications are possible, if Engineering professor Nader Engheta is right about his research involving "optical electronics." Engheta and his research team discovered that traditional "lumped" electrical-circuit elements such as inductors, capacitors and resistors - items that one could buy at Radio Shack - could be created on the nanoscale, on the order of billionths of a meter.

Though the concept involves miniature elements, it could have giant implications. Electronics would run on infrared or visible light rather than on electrons and electrical currents, Engheta says. Electronics could become quicker, smaller and more energy-efficient, transmitting currents at the speed of light through circuit elements only a few tens of nanometers across.

Amazingly, conventional circuit elements could be replaced by nothing more than nano-sized spheres of mundane materials, like glass or silver. Though Engheta said his research is still highly theoretical, he added that it has the potential to directly impact everything from consumer products to medical advances. A patent is pending.

A number of chemists at the University of Pennsylvania, led by Chemistry Professor Virgil Percec, recently created a new process for making the polymers found in everyday plastic products ranging from car parts to coffee cups. Unlike the traditional method of making such items, the Percec team's method occurs at room temperature and requires a shorter reaction time.

The technique grants chemists more control over the molecular makeup of the polymers they manufacture and allows for more-sophisticated materials to be created. More complex polymers could have a major impact in the medical world, acting like biological molecules or facilitating drug or gene delivery. The new method could also decrease the cost of the chemical reaction while creating materials that could fetch a considerable sum - an especially important implication, given that polymer-making is already a $1 billion-a-year industry. A patent for the technology is in the provisional stage.

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