Monthly Archives: January 2015

Silicon dioxide nanoparticles may affect the heart

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This is an interesting piece of research although it’s difficult to draw conclusions since the testing was ‘in vitro’, which literally means ‘in glass’ and in practice means testing cells in a test tube, a petri dish or, possibly, on a slide. That said, this work centering on silicon dioxide nanoparticles, which are increasingly used in biomedical applications, suggests further investigation is warranted. From a Jan. 9, 2015 news item on Azonano,

Nanoparticles, extremely tiny particles measured in billionths of a meter, are increasingly everywhere, and especially in biomedical products. Their toxicity has been researched in general terms, but now a team of Israeli scientists has for the first time found that exposure nanoparticles (NPs) of silicon dioxide (SiO2) can play a major role in the development of cardiovascular diseases when the NP cross tissue and cellular barriers and also find their way into the circulatory system.

A Jan. 8, 2015American Technion Society news release by Kevin Hattori, which originated the news item, describes the research in more detail,

“Environmental exposure to nanoparticles is becoming unavoidable due to the rapid expansion of nanotechnology,” says the study’s lead author, Prof. Michael Aviram, of the Technion Faculty of Medicine, “This exposure may be especially chronic for those employed in research laboratories and in high tech industry where workers handle, manufacture, use and dispose of nanoparticles. Products that use silica-based nanoparticles for biomedical uses, such as various chips, drug or gene delivery and tracking, imaging, ultrasound therapy, and diagnostics, may also pose an increased cardiovascular risk for consumers as well.” [emphasis mine]

In this study, researchers exposed cultured laboratory mouse cells resembling the arterial wall cells to NPs of silicon dioxide and investigated the effects. SiO2 NPs are toxic to and have significant adverse effects on macrophages. a type of white blood cell that take up lipids, leading to atherosclerotic lesion development and its consequent cardiovascular events, such as heart attack or stroke. Macrophages accumulation in the arterial wall under atherogenic conditions such as high cholesterol, triglycerides, oxidative stress – are converted into lipids, or laden “foam cells” which, in turn, accelerate atherosclerosis development.

“Macrophage foam cells accumulation in the arterial wall are a key cell type in the development of atherosclerosis, which is an inflammatory disease” says co-author Dr. Lauren Petrick. “The aims of our study were to gain additional insight into the cardiovascular risk associated with silicon dioxide nanoparticle exposure and discover the mechanisms behind Si02’s induced atherogenic effects on macrophages. We also wanted to use nanoparticles as a model for ultrafine particle (UFP) exposure as cardiovascular disease risk factors.”

Both NPs and UFPs can be inhaled and induce negative biological effects. [emphasis mine] However, until this study, their effect on the development of atherosclerosis has been largely unknown. Here, researchers have discovered for the first time that the toxicity of silicon dioxide nanoparticles has a “significant and substantial effect on the accumulation of triglycerides in the macrophages,” at all exposure concentrations analyzed, and that they also “increase oxidative stress and toxicity.”

A recent update from the American Heart Association also suggested that “fine particles” in air pollution leads to elevated risk for cardiovascular diseases. However, more research was needed to examine the role of “ultrafine particles” (which are much smaller than “fine particles”) on atherosclerosis development and cardiovascular risk.

“The number of nano-based consumer products has risen a thousand fold in recent years, with an estimated world market of $3 trillion by the year 2020,” conclude the researchers. “This reality leads to increased human exposure and interaction of silica-based nanoparticles with biological systems. Because our research demonstrates a clear cardiovascular health risk associated with this trend, steps need to be taken to help ensure that potential health and environmental hazards are being addressed at the same time as the nanotechnology is being developed.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a little exaggeration at work in this news release. For example, I’m not sure how a consumer would go about inhaling a computer chip or more specifically the silicon dioxide nanoparticles embedded in the chip although I can see how someone involved in the manufacture of the chip might be exposed and inhale silicon dioxide nanoparticles. I’m not trying to negate the research but do want to point out that it has limitations.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Silicon dioxide nanoparticles increase macrophage atherogenicity: Stimulation of cellular cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, and triglycerides accumulation by Lauren Petrick, Mira Rosenblat, Nicole Paland, and Michael Aviram. Article first published online: 28 NOV 2014 DOI: 10.1002/tox.22084

Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This article is behind a paywall.

Engineering a small intestine

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Researchers at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) have successfully engineered small intestines that appear to be functional when transplanted into mice according to a Jan. 8, 2015 news item on ScienceDaily,

A new study by researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has shown that tissue-engineered small intestine grown from human cells replicates key aspects of a functioning human intestine. The tissue-engineered small intestine they developed contains important elements of the mucosal lining and support structures, including the ability to absorb sugars, and even tiny or ultra-structural components like cellular connections.

A Jan. 8, 2015 Children’s Hospital Los Angeles news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, describes the problems the researchers were addressing,

Tissue-engineered small intestine (TESI) grows from stem cells contained in the intestine and offers a promising treatment for short bowel syndrome (SBS), a major cause of intestinal failure, particularly in premature babies and newborns with congenital intestinal anomalies.  TESI may one day offer a therapeutic alternative to the current standard treatment, which is intestinal transplantation, and could potentially solve its largest challenges – donor shortage and the need for lifelong immunosuppression.

…

Grikscheit [Tracy C. Grikscheit, MD, a principal investigator in The Saban Research Institute of CHLA and its Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine program]  aims to help her most vulnerable young patients, including babies who are born prematurely and develop a devastating disease called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), where life-threatening intestinal damage requires removal of large portions of the small intestine. Without enough intestinal length, the babies are dependent on intravenous feeding, which is costly and may cause liver damage.  NEC and other contributors to intestinal failure occur in 24.5 out of 100,000 live births, and the incidence of SBS is increasing.  Nearly a third of patients die within five years.

The news release goes on to describe precursor work from 2011 before describing the latest research,

CHLA scientists had previously shown that TESI could be generated from human small intestine donor tissue implanted into immunocompromised mice. However, in those initial studies – published in July 2011 in the biomedical journal Tissue Engineering, Part A – only basic components of the intestine were identified. For clinical relevance, it remained necessary to more fully investigate intact components of function such as the ability to form a healthy barrier while still absorbing nutrition or specific mechanisms of electrolyte exchange.

The new study determined that mouse TESI is highly similar to the TESI derived from human cells, and that both contain important building blocks such as the stem and progenitor cells that will continue to regenerate the intestine as a living tissue replacement. And these cells are found within the engineered tissue in specific locations and in close proximity to other specialized cells that are known to be necessary in healthy human intestine for a fully functioning organ.

“We have shown that we can grow tissue-engineered small intestine that is more complex than other stem cell or progenitor cell models that are currently used to study intestinal regeneration and disease, and proven it to be fully functional as it develops from human cells,” said Grikscheit. “Demonstrating the functional capacity of this tissue-engineered intestine is a necessary milestone on our path toward one day helping patients with intestinal failure.”

If I read this rightly, the researchers engineered more complex intestinal tissues, than those in the 2011 study, in two separate processes where they grew mouse and human small intestinal tissue and successfully implanted both types of tissue into mice. The results showed that these more complex tissue-engineered small intestines (TESIs), human or mouse, resembled each other functionally within the mice tested.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Human and Mouse Tissue-Engineered Small Intestine Both Demonstrate Digestive And Absorptive Function by Christa Nicole Grant, Garcia Mojica Salvador, Frederic G Sala, Jeffrey Ryan Hill, Daniel E Levin, Allison L Speer, Erik R Barthel, Hiroyuki Shimada, Nicholas C. Zachos, and Tracy C. Grikscheit. American Journal of Physiology – Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology Published 8 January 2015Vol. no. , DOI: 10.1152/ajpgi.00111.2014

This paper is behind a paywall.

Job at Sense About Science

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For anyone who’s not familiar with Sense About Science (from a Jan. 8, 2015 email),

Sense About Science is the UK based charity that puts science and evidence in the hands of the public. We are a source of information, we challenge misinformation and we champion sound science and evidence. We run award winning campaigns to promote open discussion about evidence, free from stigma and intimidation.

Here is the job posting (from the Jan. 8, 2015 email),

Campaigns Manager

We are recruiting for this new post, reporting to the campaigns director, to run the AllTrials campaign and parts of other Sense About Science campaigns and responsive work.

The AllTrials campaign for clinical trials transparency has already resulted in new regulations, commitments from organisations and support from thousands of people. We now need to extend internationally, coordinating activity across many groups, including patients, publishers, regulators, funders and companies, to get past and future trials reported.

You will manage the AllTrials campaign activities large and small

–          in the UK, with a campaign support officer and volunteers, and the AllTrials steering group,

–          internationally, working with Sense About Science USA and building international relationships.

The post will involve initiating responsive campaigns to new issues and linking our body of work to new discussions. It will involve presenting our work and aims in a variety of forums, from senior government officials to community talks; chairing meetings; and writing articles.

You will work with the campaigns director to devise and implement strategies for AllTrials, and deputise for her, taking a hand in the broader campaign work and Sense About Science.

The successful candidate will be articulate, motivated and ambitious about social change. It is a busy office and no two days are the same so you need to be able to plan well but adapt quickly. The ideal candidate will need:

  • a higher degree in a related subject and a background in research
  • experience of building and maintaining networks
  • experience coordinating and delivering projects and a well-tested ability to prioritise
  • the ability to analyse situations and act when in uncertain territory
  • confident and personable communication and a demonstrable ability to produce good written material which is suited to public awareness campaigns
  • good judgment and negotiating skills

Salary c. £28K – £32K. Holiday: 28 days (inc public holidays), 1 additional day after each year in post, and discretionary Christmas break days. Central London (EC1R). Will include some international travel and out of hours activity.

Email a CV and cover letter to the assistant director Emily Jesper ejesper@senseaboutscience.org by midnight on Thursday 21st January 2015. Interviews will be on Monday 2nd February 2015. Please call director of campaigns Síle Lane if you want to discuss the post and your suitability: 020 7490 9590.

If you don’t have a CV that matches the requirements but you are absolutely convinced you are right for us and this role, feel free to write to us to make the case.

I very much appreciate the final paragraph in the excerpt above. It’s nice to see an organization take a more flexible approach to the recruiting process. You can find the job posting on the Sense About Science website.

Quantum dots, televisions, and a counter-intuitive approach to environmental issues

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There’s a very interesting Jan. 8, 2015 essay by Dr. Andrew Maynard, being hosted on Nanowerk, about the effects that quantum dot televisions could have on the environment (Note: A link has been removed),

Earlier this week, The Conversation reported that, “The future is bright, the future is … quantum dot televisions”. And judging by the buzz coming from this week’s annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that’s right – the technology is providing manufacturers with a cheap and efficient way of producing the next generation of brilliant, high-definition TV screens.

But the quantum dots in these displays also use materials and technologies – including engineered nanoparticles and the heavy metal cadmium – that have been a magnet for health and environmental concerns. Will the dazzling pictures this technology allow blind us to new health and environmental challenges, or do their benefits outweigh the potential risks?

If I understand things rightly, cadmium is toxic at both the macroscale and the nanoscale and Andrew goes on to describe quantum dots (cadmium at the nanoscale) and the problem they could present in his Jan. 7, 2015 essay on The Conversation,also hosted by Nanowerk, (Note: Link have been removed),

Quantum dots are a product of the emerging field of nanotechnology. They are made of nanometer-sized particles of a semiconducting material – often cadmium selenide. About 2,000 to 20,000 times smaller than the width of a single human hair, they’re designed to absorb light of one color and emit it as another color – to fluoresce. This property makes them particularly well-suited for use in products like tablets and TVs that need bright, white, uniform backlights.

… What is unique about quantum dots is that the color of the emitted light can be modified by simply changing the size of the quantum dot particles. And because this color-shifting is a physical phenomenon, quantum dots far outperform their chemical counterparts in brightness, color and durability.

Unfortunately, the heavy metal cadmium used in the production of many quantum dots is a health and environmental hazard.

…

On top of this, the potential health and environmental impacts of engineered nanoparticles like quantum dots have been raising concerns with toxicologists and regulators for over a decade now. Research has shown that the size, shape and surface properties of some particles influence the harm they are capable of causing in humans and the environment; smaller particles are often more toxic than their larger counterparts. That said, this is an area where scientific understanding is still developing.

Together, these factors would suggest caution is warranted in adopting quantum dot technologies. Yet taken in isolation they are misleading.

The essay describes the risk factors for various sectors (Note: A link has been removed),

The quantum dots currently being used in TVs are firmly embedded in the screens – usually enclosed behind multiple layers of glass and plastic. As a result, the chances of users being exposed to them during normal operation are pretty much nil.

The situation is potentially different during manufacturing, when there is a chance that someone could be inadvertently exposed to these nanoscopic particles. Scenarios like this have led to agencies like the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health taking a close look at safety when working with nanoparticles. While the potential risks are not negligible, good working practices are effective at reducing or eliminating potentially harmful exposures.

End-of-life disposal raises additional concerns. While the nanoparticles are likely to remain firmly embedded within a trashed TV’s screen, the toxic materials they contain, including cadmium, could well be released into the environment. Cadmium is certainly a health and environmental issue with poorly regulated e-waste disposal and recycling. However, when appropriate procedures are used, exposures should be negligible.

It seems quantum dot televisions impose a smaller burden than their cousins on the environment,

Although it seems counter-intuitive, analysis by the company that was made available to the EPA [US Environmental Protection Agency] showed QD Vision’s products lead to a net decrease in environmental cadmium releases compared to conventional TVs. Cadmium is one of the pollutants emitted from coal-fired electrical power plants. Because TVs using the company’s quantum dots use substantially less power than their non-quantum counterparts, the combined cadmium in QD Vision TVs and the power plant emissions associated with their use is actually lower than that associated with conventional flat screen TVs. In other words, using cadmium in quantum dots for production of more energy-efficient displays can actually results in a net reduction in cadmium emissions.

Not the conclusion one might have drawn at the outset, eh? You can read the essay in its entirety on either Nanowerk (Jan. 8, 2015 essay) or The Conversation (Jan. 7, 2015 essay). (Same essay just different publication dates.) Andrew has also posted his essay on the University of Michigan Risk Science Center website, Are quantum dot TVs – and their toxic ingredients – actually better for the environment? Note: Andrew Maynard is the center’s director.

Late night science talk show (Star Talk) premiering in April 2015 on US television

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Thanks to David Bruggeman’s Jan. 7, 2015 post on his Pasco Phronesis blog for this tidbit about a new science addition to the late night television in the US, Star Talk (Note: Links have been removed),

Neil DeGrasse Tyson appeared today [Jan. 7, 2015] at the Television Critics Association presentations in California.  He announced that National Geographic will air a late night science-themed talk show hosted by Tyson, first airing sometime in April (H/T The Mary Sue).  Shooting begins January 8.  It will air weekly, and I intend to include it in the regular late night postings once it starts.

A Jan. 7, 2105 news release on Business Wire offers details about the proposed programme,

On the heels of COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey’s global success, National Geographic Channel today announced at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, CA the premiere of the network’s first-ever late-night series, Star Talk, hosted by renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson). Based on Tyson’s incredibly popular podcast of the same name, the new series will bridge the intersection between pop culture and science as it brings together celebrities, comedians and scientists to discuss the latest developments in our vast universe.

Premiering April 2015, the series will be produced by National Geographic Studios and will be taped in front of a studio audience at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium, where Tyson serves as director. Each week, Tyson and his fellow guests will explore a variety of cosmic topics, including space travel, extraterrestrial life, the Big Bang, the future of Earth and the environment and breaking news from the universe.

…

“After the global success of COSMOS as one of the most watched series in our history, we are thrilled to be partnering with Neil again on Star Talk — his wildly popular podcast that transcends science and crosses over into pop culture — once again satisfying the audience’s passion for adventure and exploration,” said Courteney Monroe, CEO, National Geographic Channels. “We continue to bolster our programming with series and event specials that are brand definitional, and Star Talk is the perfect opportunity to offer our audience an edgy, late-night alternative with the credibility and authenticity that are the hallmarks of our network.”

The premiere of Star Talk will be accompanied by the one-hour special Hubble’s Cosmic Journey, a celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope’s 25 years orbiting our planet. Narrated by Tyson, Hubble’s Cosmic Journey is the story of one of the most remarkable advances in modern technology, as told by the people who designed, built, launched, operated and repaired the legendary observatory. Hubble’s Cosmic Journey is produced by Bigger Bang and along with Star Talk will air globally on National Geographic Channel in 171 countries and 45 languages this spring.

The tv show is based on Tyson’s radio show/podcast, Star Talk. A Hollywood Reporter Jan. 7, 2015 article by Michael O’Connell describes the relationship between Tyson’s radio show and his new tv talk show,

“This is kind of low-risk, I think, for National Geographic,” Tyson told the crowd at the Television Critics Association press tour. “Star Talk exists as a thriving podcast right now.”

Star Talk will indeed follow a similar format to Tyson’s podcast, which marries science and popular culture and feature interviews with celebrities, comedians and scientists. He’s still sorting through all of the elements that he’ll add to the television iteration, but he does intend to give Bill Nye a platform for a minute-long rant in each show, much as Andy Rooney had for many years on CBS’ 60 Minutes.

I wish them good luck and look forward to reading about the show on the Pasco Phronesis blog.

A new approach to heating: warm the clothing not the room

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A Jan. 7, 2015 news item on ScienceDaily describes a new type of textile which could change the way we use heat (energy),

To stay warm when temperatures drop outside, we heat our indoor spaces — even when no one is in them. But scientists have now developed a novel nanowire coating for clothes that can both generate heat and trap the heat from our bodies better than regular clothes. They report on their technology, which could help us reduce our reliance on conventional energy sources, in the ACS journal Nano Letters.

A Jan. 7, 2015 American Chemical Society (ACS) news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, provides more information about energy consumption and the researchers’ proposed solution,

Yi Cui [Stanford University] and colleagues note that nearly half of global energy consumption goes toward heating buildings and homes. But this comfort comes with a considerable environmental cost – it’s responsible for up to a third of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists and policymakers have tried to reduce the impact of indoor heating by improving insulation and construction materials to keep fuel-generated warmth inside. Cui’s team wanted to take a different approach and focus on people rather than spaces.

The researchers developed lightweight, breathable mesh materials that are flexible enough to coat normal clothes. When compared to regular clothing material, the special nanowire cloth trapped body heat far more effectively. Because the coatings are made out of conductive materials, they can also be actively warmed with an electricity source to further crank up the heat. The researchers calculated that their thermal textiles could save about 1,000 kilowatt hours per person every year — that’s about how much electricity an average U.S. home consumes in one month.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Personal Thermal Management by Metallic Nanowire-Coated Textile by Po-Chun Hsu, Xiaoge Liu, Chong Liu, Xing Xie, Hye Ryoung Lee, Alex J. Welch, Tom Zhao, and Yi Cui. Nano Lett., Article ASAP DOI: 10.1021/nl5036572 Publication Date (Web): November 30, 2014
Copyright © 2014 American Chemical Society

This paper is behind a paywall.

30 or more PhD nanotechnology studentships available in New Zealand

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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) lists a notice posted Jan. 5, 2015 for 30+ PhD studentships in the field of nanotechnology available in New Zealand. The posting comes from New Zealand’s McDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology on its ‘studentship’ webpage (Note: A link has been removed),

The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology is New Zealand’s premier research organisation concerned with high quality research and research education in materials science and nanotechnology.

30+ PhD studentships are now open across our research areas and partnership institutions.

Successful candidates will be a member of the MacDiarmid Institute, a national Centre of Research Excellence which provides collaborative opportunities and a thriving environment to work in.

Each scholarship is worth NZD$27,000  per annum (not taxed) and includes all student fees.

Come to New Zealand to enjoy the best of life and science!

For more details on specific projects, deadlines, etc – contact the appropriate MacDiarmid Institute investigator  from the list below.

Look out for 6 Postdoctoral Fellowships to be advertised soon.

To give you a sense of the possibilities I have excerpted a few of the studentship descriptions (Note: formatting has been changed and links removed),

Professor Kevin E. Smith

Head, School of Chemical Sciences
University of Auckland
kevin.smith@auckland.ac.nz

Synchrotron Radiation X-Ray Spectroscopic Studies of Functional Metal Oxides

The available Ph.D. project involves the experimental study of the electronic structure of transition metal oxides using a suite of synchrotron radiation-based spectroscopies.

…

Professor Jadranka Travas-Sejdic

The University of Auckland(School of Chemical Sciences)
j.travas-sejdic@auckland.ac.nz

2D and 3D conducting polymer structures to interrogate and sense biological cells.

The PhD project will be highly cross-disciplinary involving materials chemistry, microfabrication of conducting polymer structures and their interaction with biological cells.

The PhD will be enrolled at UoA but the project will be highly collaborative between The University of Auckland and the University of Canterbury.

…

Dr Geoff Willmott

The University of Auckland
g.willmott@auckland.ac.nz

New Tools for Soft Nanomechanics: Nanoaspiration

We have a growing capability in nanofluidics, an emerging field which aims to understand the physics and chemistry of soft nanomaterials, and of fluidic transport in confined spaces.

…

Dr Duncan McGillivray

d.mcgillivray@auckland.ac.nz
The University of Auckland

Biologicaly patterning of surfaces

A PhD scholarship in chemistry is offered for research into biological patterning of surfaces based at the School of Chemical Sciences at the University of Auckland.

…

Dr Shane Telfer

Massey University, Palmerston North
s.telfer@massey.ac.nz

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are an exciting class of porous materials with a raft of applications.

The project will focus on the design, synthesis, and characterisation of MOFs for gas storage and separations.  Novel spectroscopic techniques will be employed to gain insight into the MOF structure and functional properties.

Good luck to all the applicants!

Surgical nanobots to be tested in humans in 2015?

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Thanks to James Lewis at the Foresight Institute’s* blog and his Jan. 6, 2015 posting about an an announcement of human clinical trials for surgical nanobots (Note: Links have been removed),

… as structural DNA nanotechnology rapidly expanded the repertoire of atomically precise nanostructures that can be fabricated, it became possible to fabricate functional DNA nanostructures incorporating logic gates to deliver and release molecular cargo for medical applications, as we reported a couple years ago (DNA nanotechnology-based nanorobot delivers cell suicide message to cancer cells). More recently, DNA nanorobots have been coated with lipid to survive immune attack inside the body.

Lewis then notes this (Note: A link has been removed),

 … “Ido Bachelet announces 2015 human trial of DNA nanobots to fight cancer and soon to repair spinal cords“:

At the British Friends of Bar-Ilan University’s event in Otto Uomo October 2014 Professor Ido Bachelet announced the beginning of the human treatment with nanomedicine. He indicates DNA nanobots can currently identify cells in humans with 12 different types of cancer tumors.

A human patient with late stage leukemia will be given DNA nanobot treatment. Without the DNA nanobot treatment the patient would be expected to die in the summer of 2015. Based upon animal trials they expect to remove the cancer within one month.

The information was excerpted from Brian Wang’s Dec. 27, 2014 post on his Nextbigfuture blog,

One Trillion 50 nanometer nanobots in a syringe will be injected into people to perform cellular surgery.

The DNA nanobots have been tuned to not cause an immune response. They have been adjusted for different kinds of medical procedures. Procedures can be quick or ones that last many days.

…

Using DNA origami and molecular programming, they are reality. These nanobots can seek and kill cancer cells, mimic social insect behaviors, carry out logical operators like a computer in a living animal, and they can be controlled from an Xbox. Ido Bachelet from the bio-design lab at Bar Ilan University explains this technology and how it will change medicine in the near future.

I advise reading both Wang’s and Lewis’ posts in their entirety. To give you a sense of how their posts differ (Lewis is more technical), I solicited information from the websites hosting their blog postings.

Here’s more about Wang from the About page on the Nextbigfuture blog,

Brian L. Wang, M.B.A. is a long time futurist. A lecturer at the Singularity University and Nextbigfuture.com author. He worked on the most recent ten year plan for the Institute for the Future and at a two day Institute for the Future workshop with Universities and City planners in Hong Kong (advising the city of Hong Kong on their future plans). He had a TEDx lecture on Energy. Brian is available as a speaker for corporations and organizations that value accurate and detailed insight into the development of technology global trends.

Lewis provides a contrast (from the About page listing Lewis on the Foresight Institute website),

Jim received a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967, an M.A. in chemistry from Harvard University in 1968, and a Ph.D. in chemistry, from Harvard University in 1972. After doing postdoctoral research at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, Lausanne, Switzerland, from 1971-1973, Jim did research in the molecular biology of tumor viruses at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, from 1973-1980, first as a postdoctoral researcher, and then as a Staff Investigator and Senior Staff Investigator. He continued his research as an Associate Member, Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, from 1980-1988, and then joined the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute in Seattle, WA, as a Senior Research Investigator from 1988-1996. Since 1996 he has been working as a consultant on nanotechnology.

Getting back to Bachelet, his team’s work, a precursor for this latest initiative, has been featured here before in an April 11, 2014 post,

This latest cockroach item, which concerns new therapeutic approaches, comes from an April 8, 2014 article by Sarah Spickernell for New Scientist (Note: A link has been removed),

It’s a computer – inside a cockroach. Nano-sized entities made of DNA that are able to perform the same kind of logic operations as a silicon-based computer have been introduced into a living animal.

Ido Bachelet can be seen in this February 2014 video describing the proposed surgical nanobots,

Bar-Ilan University where Bachelet works is located in Israel. You can find more information about this work and more on the Research group for Bio-Design website.

*The possessive was moved from Foresight to Institute as in Institute’s on Nov. 11, 2015.

Commercialization webinar series for nanotechnology businesses

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Starting Jan. 15, 2015, there will be a series of nanotechnology commercialization webinars for small and medium enterprises offered by agencies associated with the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). From a Jan. 7, 2015 news item on Nanowerk (there is an alphabet soup’s worth of agencies hosting this series),

The National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO), on behalf of the Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology (NSET) Subcommittee of the Committee on Technology, National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), will hold a series of webinars focusing on the experiences, successes, and challenges for small- and medium-sized businesses working in nanotechnology and on issues of interest to the business community.

The first webinar is “Roadblocks to Success in Nanotechnology Commercialization – What Keeps the Small and Medium Enterprise Community Up at Night?”

More details can be found on the NNCO Small- and Medium-sized Enterprise Webinar Series page for the first in the series,

When: The first webinar will be held Thursday, January 15, 2015, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. EST.

This webinar will be a round-table discussion with small and medium-sized businesses involved in nanotechnology commercialization focused on understanding common problems that they face and identifying those problems that the NNCO and NSET can assist in overcoming.

Who:

  • Craig Bandes, Pixelligent LLC
  • Doyle Edwards, Brewer Science Inc.
  • Scott Rickert, PEN Inc.

How: Questions of interest to the small- and medium-sized business community may be submitted to webinar@nnco.nano.gov beginning one week prior to the event through the close of the webinar. During the question-and-answer segment of the webinars, submitted questions will be considered in the order received and may be posted on the NNI Web site (www.nano.gov). A moderator will identify relevant questions and pose them to the panelists. Due to time constraints, not all questions may be addressed during the webinar. The moderator reserves the right to group similar questions and to skip questions, as appropriate.

Registration: Click here to register for this free, online event. Registration for the webinar is required and is on a first-come, first-served basis and will be capped at 200 participants.

Good luck with registration! (I was not able to click through to the page this morning, Jan. 7, 2015 at approximately 10:25 am PDT. They may have a problem with their server or they’re being overrun with requests.)

ETA Jan. 7, 2015 1040 hours PDT: Marlowe Newman, the media contact for this series, very kindly sent me a link to the registration page (I tried and it works),

https://events-na12.adobeconnect.com/content/connect/c1/1305935587/en/events/event/shared/default_template/event_registration.html?sco-id=1309829163&_charset_=utf-8

I also tried the previous link to the registration and it seems be working now.