Nanotechnology key to scientific leaps, execs say

NEW YORK — Buoyed by a recent pledge of $2.4 billion in funding from the U.S. government, nanotechnology researchers, investors, and business executives gathered here this week to discuss new technologies and the state of their emerging industry.

Gathered at the second annual NanoBusiness conference, organized by the Manhattan-based NanoBusiness Alliance, a hot topic among those present was a just-passed House of Representatives bill authorizing $2.4 billion in spending over the next three years on nanotechnology research.

The bill calls for the creation of an interagency committee on nanotechnology research, and authorizes funds for appropriation by agencies including the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The two-year-old NanoBusiness Alliance — whose membership includes corporations, universities, government agencies, service firms and non-profit organizations —  had been lobbying for passage of the legislation.

The House bill signals that federal policymakers are ready at last to take nanotechnology seriously, former House Science Committee Chair Bob Walker said during a presentation.

“If there was ever a lagging indicator in the United States, it’s the United States Congress,” quipped Walker, who retired in 1996 and now co-leads the lobbying firm.

But having funds authorized is still a long way from having them appropriated, and significant challenges remain for researchers and developers hoping to tap the federal government’s pool of grants and contracts, he cautioned. Dealing with the government is a lengthy and often expensive process, Walker said.

Nanotechnology science involves manipulating matter at the atomic level. The cross-disciplinary subject holds promise for advances in a number of fields including medicine, electronics, defense, and manufacturing in a range of industries. While early-stage nanotechnology research began decades ago, it’s only in the last few years that the niche has begun attracting widespread interest from the business and investment communities.

Executives from two large companies with nanotechnology initiatives under way spoke during keynote addresses Monday about areas in which they hope to soon begin seeing their investments pay off.

General Electric (GE), which has a portfolio of businesses that spans jet engines and running a TV network, sees in nanotechnology the chance to fundamentally alter what’s possible in a number of its manufacturing operations, said Scott Donnelly, the company’s senior vice president of research and development.

Materials science is a discipline of small steps, justified by the enormous impact that slight enhancements can have when applied to large-scale operations, Donnelly said.

“An entire decade is spent to take firing temperature up 20 degrees,” he said. “When we look at nanotechnology, and the incredible materials performance of the new composites … we see the opportunity in so many areas to do a step function in the performance of our products in the field.”

Among the nanotechnology initiatives GE is currently working on are projects aimed at lighter and cheaper aircraft parts, more efficient and effective medical imaging, and materials with better heat management properties, for use in devices such as mobile phones, Donnelly said.

German auto manufacturer DaimlerChrysler has already put the results of nanotechnology research to work on its production line: Some of DaimlerChrysler’s newest cars feature “Conturan” glass, with an ultrathin layer of anti-reflective coating, said Ulf Koenig, director of the company’s “Nanocar” program.

But the company’s vision of where nanotechnology can lead is far grander than better windows.

Despite years of research into alternative engine designs, fossil fuels will remain necessary for powering automobiles for at least the next decade, Koenig forecast. As governments enact tougher emissions standards, reducing pollution and improving fuel-use efficiency become top design considerations for the industry — and nanotechnology-driven scientific advances will help meet those challenges, he said.

DaimlerChrysler is also exploring the ways nanotechnology can help it meet the more whimsical challenges of keeping up with the latest customer fashion and comfort demands. One competitive advantage on its wish list: A car of changeable color. With the help of a nanoparticle coating and an electric field, a driver could alter his vehicle’s appearance to match his mood, Koenig suggested.

Many of the conference’s presenters focused on the uses of nanotechnology their company or agency envisions several years from now, when current investments begin generating returns. But in some fields, particularly in the life sciences, testing is underway for real-world applications.

At the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a unit of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, scientists envision replacing the current surgery/radiation/chemotherapy regime used to treat and detect cancer with a program of injectable particles that can find cancer cells, and, if needed, begin immediately delivering drugs to treat the disease.

Aspects of that plan are already feasible and being evaluated in animal tests, and NCI is working on arranging human clinical trials, said Ed Monachino, assistant director for technology in the NCI’s office of technology and industrial relations. Nanotechnology development isn’t the holdup — it’s biological research that lags, he said.

“We can build the particles, inject them and make the [cancerous] cells glow like a Christmas tree, put in the drug, and deliver it,” he said. “The hardest part is the biomarkers. We don’t understand the biology well enough to target the nanotechnology at all the different types of cancers that exist.”

Monachino’s remarks were among the most interesting made at the conference, said attendee Daniel Lavery, a partner with consulting firm Matterhorn Group, in Wyckoff, N.J.

“What he talked about was meaningful and pertinent. It represents the end of the spectrum where nanotechnology has immediate benefits,” Lavery said. “So much of this is about what’s possible down the road.”

Lavery’s clients, primarily large IT companies, have been indicating interest in the nanotechnology field, with particular attention to the benefits it could yield in chip manufacturing and other hardware advances, he said. He came to the conference for a sense of what’s happening in the area, which he sees as still nascent but of growing importance.

NanoBusiness 2003 began Sunday and continues through Tuesday.