POLICY NEWS

Nanoscale Science Research Centers progress

Progress is being made on the US Department ofEnergy’s five Nanoscale Science Research Centers(NSRCs) for nanomaterial synthesis, processing,and fabrication, which are collocated with existingcharacterization and analysis user facilities. Two recently underwent site-dedication ceremonies.The $72 million Center for Nanoscale Materials(CNM), a partnership with the State of Illinois, willopen in 2007 at Argonne National Laboratory (hometo the Electron Microscopy Center, Intense PulsedNeutron Source, and Advanced Photon Source). The $81 million Center for Functional Nanomaterials(CFN) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (home tothe National Synchrotron Light Source and the LaserElectron Accelerator) will also open in 2007. Of the others, the $65 million Center for NanophaseMaterials Sciences (CNMS) at Oak Ridge NationalLaboratory (next to its Spallation Neutron Source) isscheduled to begin full operation this October. The $76 million Center for IntegratedNanotechnologies (CINT), which will be jointlyoperated by Sandia and Los Alamos NationalLaboratories (home to the Los Alamos NeutronScience Center and the National High Magnetic

Field Laboratory), is due to be completed thisOctober, and should be operational in Spring 2006. The $85 million Molecular Foundry at LawrenceBerkeley National Laboratory (home to theAdvanced Light Source, the National Center forElectron Microscopy, and the National EnergyResearch Scientific Computing Center) should becompleted by the end of 2005. Prior to the centers opening, a ‘jump start’ phase isgiving users access to existing facilities and staff. Mark Telford

Artist’s impression of the Center for Nanoscale Materials, now

under construction. (Courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory.)

FACILITIES

The US National Institutes of Health’s NationalHeart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) hasgranted three of the four awards in itsProgram of Excellence in Nanotechnology (PEN).A team of 12 at Georgia Institute of Technologyand Emory University (led by Gang Bao) gets$11.5 million to establish a nanocardiologyprogram. The team will use molecular beacons,semiconductor quantum dots, and magneticnanoparticles to analyze the formation of‘vulnerable' plaque (an arterial inflammationthat can rupture, leading to heart attack andstroke), detect it at an early stage, andpinpoint its genetic causes. The group alsoplans to detect and treat other diseases. A team of 25 at The Burnham Institute (led byJeffrey Smith), The Scripps Research Institute(both of La Jolla, California), and University ofCalifornia Santa Barbara gets $13 million todetect, monitor, treat, and eliminate plaque.The team will create delivery vehicles fortransporting drugs, imaging agents, andnanodevices; self-assembling polymers asmolecular nanostents to stabilize plaque and

replace its fibrous cap with an anti-adhesive,anti-inflammatory surface; molecular switchesto sense and respond to the pathophysiology offatty deposits on arterial walls; and bio-nanoelectromechanical systems comprisinghuman proteins linked to synthetic nanodevicesto sense and respond to plaque, providingdiagnostic and therapeutic capability. A team of 13 at Washington University in St.Louis (led by synthetic organic chemist KarenWooley), plus the University of California’sJean Frechet (at Berkeley) and Craig Hawker(at Santa Barbara), gets $12.5 million todevelop nanoscale agents that can beassembled, labeled, targeted, filled, andactivated for eventual diagnosis and treatmentof disease. The team’s nanosystem has alreadyworked in vivo, targeting cancer cells. An initialaim is to image gene therapy. The goal,ultimately, is to treat pulmonary and acutevascular inflammation and injury. The fourth PEN award is due to be announcedin late summer. All awards last five years. Mark Telford

NHLBI awards nanotechnology grants FUNDING

The Zhejiang-California International

Institute of Nanotechnology has been

founded at Zhejiang University in

Hangzhou, China. Investment of

RMB250 million ($30.1 million) comes

from Zhejiang Provincial People’s

Government, Zhejiang University, and

the California NanoSystems Institute

(CNSI). The institute will include eight

research centers in areas such as

systematic biology, molecular imaging,

biological detection, and nanoscale

preparation and expression. It will also

incubate and industrialize its research.

Roy Doumani, CNSI’s chief operating

officer, says the cooperation between

Chinese and US universities will

integrate research and education,

speed application, and explore the

implications of nanotechnology. Mark Telford

Roadmap grantPOLICY

Foresight Nanotech Institute (formerly

Foresight Institute) and Battelle have

launched a Technology Roadmap for

Productive Nanosystems (to be

completed in late 2006) via an initial

grant of $250 000 from The Waitt

Family Foundation.

The roadmap will provide a common

framework for understanding the

pathways for developing molecular-

scale systems that make other useful

nanostructured materials and devices,

the development challenges that must

be overcome, and their applications. It

will also formulate research and

commercialization agendas.

The steering committee includes

Charles M. Lieber of Harvard

University; Mauro Ferrari of Ohio State

University; J. Fraser Stoddart, director

of the California NanoSystems Institute;

and Robert Hwang, director of the

Center for Functional Nanomaterials. Mark Telford

China-USinstitute formedCOLLABORATION

August 2005 13

nt2p12_15.qxd 07/13/2005 15:07 Page 13