Tag Archives: Investigación y Desarrollo

Hector Barron Escobar and his virtual nanomaterial atomic models for the oil, mining, and energy industries

I think there’s some machine translation at work in the Aug. 27, 2015 news item about Hector Barron Escobar on Azonano,

By using supercomputers the team creates virtual atomic models that interact under different conditions before being taken to the real world, allowing savings in time and money.

With the goal of potentiate the oil, mining and energy industries, as well as counteract the emission of greenhouse gases, the nanotechnologist Hector Barron Escobar, designs more efficient and profitable nanomaterials.

The Mexican who lives in Australia studies the physical and chemical properties of platinum and palladium, metal with excellent catalytic properties that improve processes in petrochemistry, solar cells and fuel cells, which because of their scarcity have a high and unprofitable price, hence the need to analyze their properties and make them long lasting.

Structured materials that the specialist in nanotechnology designs can be implemented in the petrochemical and automotive industries. In the first, they accelerate reactions in the production of hydrocarbons, and in the second, nanomaterials are placed in catalytic converters of vehicles to transform the pollutants emitted by combustion into less harmful waste.

An August 26, 2015 Investigación y Desarrollo press release on Alpha Galileo, which originated the news item, continues Barron Escobar’s profile,

PhD Barron Escobar, who majored in physics at the National University of Mexico (UNAM), says that this are created by using virtual supercomputers to interact with atomic models under different conditions before being taken to the real world.

Barron recounts how he came to Australia with an invitation of his doctoral advisor, Amanda Partner with whom he analyzed the electronic properties of gold in the United States.

He explains that using computer models in the Virtual Nanoscience Laboratory (VNLab) in Australia, he creates nanoparticles that interact in different environmental conditions such as temperature and pressure. He also analyzes their mechanical and electronic properties, which provide specific information about behavior and gives the best working conditions. Together, these data serve to establish appropriate patterns or trends in a particular application.

The work of the research team serves as a guide for experts from the University of New South Wales in Australia, with which they cooperate, to build nanoparticles with specific functions. “This way we perform virtual experiments, saving time, money and offer the type of material conditions and ideal size for a specific catalytic reaction, which by the traditional way would cost a lot of money trying to find what is the right substance” Barron Escobar comments.

Currently he designs nanomaterials for the mining company Orica, because in this industry explosives need to be controlled in order to avoid damaging the minerals or the environment.

Research is also immersed in the creation of fuel cells, with the use of the catalysts designed by Barron is possible to produce more electricity without polluting.

Additionally, they enhance the effectiveness of catalytic converters in petrochemistry, where these materials help accelerate oxidation processes of hydrogen and carbon, which are present in all chemical reactions when fuel and gasoline are created. “We can identify the ideal particles for improving this type of reactions.”

The nanotechnology specialist also seeks to analyze the catalytic properties of bimetallic materials like titanium, ruthenium and gold, as their reaction according to size, shape and its components.

Escobar Barron chose to study nanomaterials because it is interesting to see how matter at the nano level completely changes its properties: at large scale it has a definite color, but keep another at a nanoscale, besides many applications can be obtained with these metals.

For anyone interested in Orica, there’s more here on their website; as for Dr. Hector Barron Escobar, there’s this webpage on  Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) website.

Mexican company “Medical and Surgical Center for Retina” and its painless eye drop treatment

I am confined to the materials which have been translated into English so this story is lighter on detail than I would prefer. A June 26, 2015 news item on Azonano describes a company which provides a new painless treatment for secondary blindness,

The Mexican company “Medical and Surgical Center for Retina” created a way to transport drugs, in order to avoid risks and painful treatments in people with secondary blindness due to chronic degenerative blindness such as diabetic retinopathy and degeneration of the eye. The innovative formula results eliminates the need to administrate the drug by intraocular injection.

It is a nanotechnology product, which works with last generation liposomes particles, concentrated in droplets, which function as a conveyor that wraps proteins or antibody fragments and allow its passage into the eye. Once inside, it releases the drugs.

With the nanotechnology product the costs are reduced by 80 to 90 percent and enables the elderly population to make use of it. “With this technology hospitals that have no resources can apply the needed drugs, without requiring a a specialist or a particular facility for the administration. It is necessary to be prescribed by a physician, but it can be administered at home, which lowers the cost. “

A June 25, 2015 Investigación y Desarrollo news release on Alpha Galileo, which originated the news item, provides more information about the company and what seems to be a series of clinical trials both current and upcoming,

The doctor Juan Carlos Altamirano Vallejo, medical director of the Medical and Surgical Center for Retina, mentions that the conditions that originate in the retina are mostly caused by chronic degenerative diseases such as diabetes (diabetic retinopathy) or macular alteration . Patients with this conditions usually require one injection per month which comes at a very high cost and increases if the procedure is needed for both eyes.

The company, located in Jalisco (central west state of Mexico) won the Mexican National Prize for Technology and Innovation and plans to conclude the Clinical Research regulated by the Federal Commission for Protection Against Health Risks (COFEPRIS) next year. The idea is for the medicine to be distributed in state and private health institutions. So far, the achieved results are the same as the ones obtained with intraocular injection, but without the inherent risks of this procedure, such as infection or retinal detachment.

Current talks are being held with COFEPRIS to conduct a study within several diseases and increase its use for different conditions. In the United States, patients who have followed the treatment have had positive results.

The Medical and Surgical Center for Retina provides medical care and a specialized retina Ophthalmology Clinic provides consultation, which also has an area of ​​Biotechnology and Drug Research of Biomedical Engineering, Diagnosis and Treatment Equipment.

Altamirano Vallejo says that receiving the award opens the doors to reach more people and prevent blindness. “It is the most important prize delivered by the Presidency of the Republic in the area of ​​technology and innovation. For us, to have an entity such as the award foundation to guide us and allows us to learn, know skills, strengths and company administration makes us proud, specially the opportunity for a product like this to reach the market and prevent blindness.

Back in an Oct. 9, 2014 posting, I wrote about a couple of nanotechnology-enabled eye drop projects and some of the challenges with trying to bypass the eye’s natural protections.

Finally, I was not able to locate the company (without the Spanish language name that’s not likely to be easy) but there is more information about Investigación y Desarrollo here.