Senate Hearing on The National Nanotechnology Investment: Manufacturing, Commercialization and Job Creation"

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Robert Oszakiewski

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Science and Space will be holding a hearing at 10AM on Thursday July 14, "The National Nanotechnology Investment: Manufacturing, Commercialization and Job Creation",

As the Commerce Committee considers a reauthorization of the National Nanotechnology Initiative, the hearing will examine the potential of nanotechnology, federal initiatives to coordinate research investments, barriers to commercialization, possible environmental and health risks, and steps Congress can take to improve the return on federal nanotechnology investments.

Appearing before the Subcommittee are the following witnesses:

    • Dr. Chad A. Mirkin
      Director, International Institute for Nanotechnology, Northwestern University
      Member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

    • Dr. Charles (Chuck) H. Romine
      Acting Associate Director, Laboratory Programs, and Principal Deputy, Office of the Director
      National Institute of Standards and Technology

    • Dr. Diandra Leslie-Pelecky
      Director, West Virginia Nano Initiative
      Professor of Physics, West Virginia University

    • Dr. Thomas O'Neal
      Associate Vice President for Research and Commercialization, University of Central Florida
      Executive Director, University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program

    • Dr. George L. McLendon
      Howard R. Hughes Provost and Professor of Chemistry
      Rice University

     

The hearing will also be webcast on the Committee's website. The witnesses prepared statements will be posted to the Subcommittee's site the day of the hearing.

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Cholesterol and Nanoparticles

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Robert Oszakiewski

We are all familiar, at this point in time, with the concept of "good" (HDL) and "bad" (LDL)cholesterol and with the effects of a build up of "bad" cholesterol on the walls of arteries and other blood vessels. Cardiovascular disease is now the leading cause of death in the United States, ahead of cancer.

According to an article published in late November in the New York Times, research at Northwestern University, under the direction of Drs. C. Shad Thaxton and Chad A. Mirkin, and at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine under the direction of Dr. Willem J.M. Mulder, may lead to new  tools for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Drs. Thaxton and Mirkin's work has focused on creating synthetic versions of the HDL (good cholesterol) molecule using gold nanoparticles to replace the fatty core usually found in the HDL molecule. The altered HDL molecule has been demonstrated in a pilot study to be effective in removing plaque build-ups from blood vessels, by absorbing the LDL cholesterol, just as naturally occurring HDL molecules would.

The research at Mt. Sinai has focused on developing HDL-like nanoparticles for use in different types of imaging; gold nanocrystals were most effective when used in computer tomography while iron oxide nanocrystals were more effective with MRIs. The goal of Dr. Mulder's research is to improve the imaging of hardening of the arteries due to the build-up of plaques

The potential for using the HDL-nanoparticles as treatment for cardiovascular disease, according to Dr. William O'Neill, Executive Dean for Clinical Affairs at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, "Could revolutionize cardiology".

However, as both Dr. Andre Nel, Director of the Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology at UCLA and Professor Vincent M. Rotello a the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, caution, further study on the possible effects of nanoparticle accumulation in the body need to be done before wide spread use the nano-HDL in treatment for cardiovascular disease, along with exercise, diet changes etc can occur.

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