Robots of the Future
Technology Review (12/22/06) Graham-Rowe, Duncan

While every year experiences advances in robotics, 2007 has the makings of a revolutionary year for the field. The DARPA Urban Challenge, set for November 2007, could include at least a robot car that is able to negotiate urban traffic while obeying traffic laws and avoiding pedestrians. In other robots, the electric motors and pneumatic pistons that have given them their strength in their past are being left behind in favor of synthetic muscles; while the early going was difficult for researchers, a team at the Nanotech Institute at the University of Texas, Dallas, has made carbon nanotubes into muscles by spinning the molecules into "yarn." Microsoft hopes that its release of a robotic developer's kit will do for robotics what Microsoft originally did for the PC, now that the cost of robotics hardware is relatively low and demand is higher than ever. The toolkit is intended to make robots truly helpful around the home. Household robots experienced a great rise in popularity during 2005 and 2006, surpassing that of industrial robots. South Korea is expected to deploy the first multifunctional home robot, as its government hopes to have a robot in every home by 2013. Safety is not being ignored in the midst of this progress: Bristol Robotics Laboratory (U.K.) director Chris Melhuish says candidly, "If [robots] are powerful enough to do something useful, then they are powerful enough to be dangerous." Roboticists from across the globe will converge in Rome this April to discuss necessary safety solutions, before lawsuits concerning robot-related injuries begin piling up.
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Nanotechnologies for the Rapid Detection of Pesticides and Pathogens
Technology News Daily (12/22/06)

AZTI-Tecnalia presented research on the use of microsystem and nanotechnologies for the detection of pesticides and pathogens at the III Hispano-French Conference in Donostia-San Sebastian. For example, AZTI-Tecnalia showed how it is using a prototype for a portable sensor to simultaneously detect Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes in fish and dairy products. The system allowed it to recognize such infections much earlier. AZTI-Tecnalia, which follows the European GOODFOOD—Food Safety and Quality Monitoring with Microsystems program, also discussed the potential of microsystems and nanotechnologies in the food industry. The technology is seen as having an enormous impact on food safety and quality control, such as the emergence of new intelligent systems offering traceability features. AZTI-Tecnalia also talked about the potential risks of the technology, with concerns stemming from the lack of data on how the use of nanomaterials in foods could impact humans. The research community continues to study nanomaterial toxicity and publish its findings.
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Gene Expression Potential Yet to Be Revealed
Scientist Live (12/22/2006)

Drug discovery continues to benefit from gene expression, a market that reached US$405.6 million in revenue in Europe last year, according to reports. By 2012, the market for using gene sequence and gene expression variations to detect defective genes and polymorphisms is expected to grow to about $1.9 billion. Nonetheless, there are still some questions about how cost-effective the emerging microtechnologies will be for laboratories. Reagent mixing and sample preparation are expected to be performed more quickly as a result of laboratory automation. "As these processes require a lot of skilled labor and time, there is an indirect impact on the pricing of the entire gene expression products," says Dr. Amarpreet Dhiman, the program leader of drug discovery technologies at Frost & Sullivan. "Therefore, honing the automation can help manufacturing processes to become more cost effective, thus aiding the consumers by lowering the price."
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Nano-Welds Herald New Era of Electronics
New Scientist (12/19/06) Vol. 391, No. 2577, P. 6; Simonite, Tom

Researchers in Switzerland are developing a new welding technique that operates at scales of a billionth of a meter and could make the assembly of electronic components possible at a scale never before possible. One of the techniques, known as "nanorobotic spot welding," joins objects the same way an electrician would solder materials together, using molten copper. "We position a 50-nanometer-wide carbon nanotube filled with copper inside a nanorobotic manipulator, and run a small voltage through it to melt the copper," explains the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems' Lixin Dong, a contributor to the project. In these experiments the manipulator was configured so as the copper melted it connected the nanotubes to each other. These low resistance electrical connections could be used to make tiny transistors, in a way that is "easier and take[s] less energy than ... people do now," says Dong. This technique could be used to make many joins simultaneously, by running voltage through self-assembled structures of nanotubes. Another method of nanowelding, developed at Bath University, requires only an electron microscope. The electron beam inside the microscope creates what are usually unwanted amorphous carbon out of carbon-based contaminants, but this effect can be used to weld nano-sized items to a surface or even construct items from scratch. Lead researcher Sergey Gordeev explains that by "varying the beam and rotating the target," researchers can construct any 3D shape.
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Law Passes Retooling Effort on Bioterror
Washington Post (12/12/06) P. A15; Merle, Renae

Congress passed a bill that would overhaul management of the White House's $5.6 billion Project BioShield program. The bill also provides some research and testing companies with regular cash advances to support their efforts at finding ways to combat bioterrorism. The legislation attracted the attention of numerous additional parties who are interested in Project BioShield, said Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), one of the sponsors of the bill. "We have more people, more companies, more academic institutions, that have looked at this legislation and planned how they can plug into it," Burr said. The bill creates an authority in the Health and Human Services Department charged with overseeing Project BioShield, and participating companies could receive an advance of 5 percent of their contract's value if they fulfill certain requirements. Normally, these companies would not be paid until vaccines and drugs were delivered.
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As the Nano-Wheel Turns
New York Times (12/12/06) P. D3; Fountain, Henry

Researchers, led by Christian Joachim of the Center for Material Elaboration and Structural Studies in Toulouse, France, have developed a nano-wheel that can be maneuvered and rotated using a basic mechanical molecular rack and pinion, according to a report in Nature Materials. The solution uses HB-NPB--a single hexagonal molecule consisting of 142 carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen atoms—as a pinion and interlocking near-identical molecules as a rack. After the creation of the meshing rack and pinion, the researchers utilized the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope, along with van der Waals forces, to move the wheel in the desired direction. Although the wheels may eventually be used in nanoscale devices, currently the wheel is still too large. Next, the researchers hope to integrate the mechanics inside a single molecule.
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Food Safety System
Chemical & Engineering News (12/11/06) Vol. 84, No. 50, P. 28; Hileman, Bette

Recent contamination outbreaks in the food chain coupled with uneven inspection and oversight resources among the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration has prompted Congress and safety experts to consider a re-allocation of resources to a single agency. E. coli, which was a primary problem in meat processing, has found its way into produce fields through roaming cattle or other animals that bring with them contaminated feces. The USDA created the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points testing requirement in the late 1990s, and this testing method reduced E. coli outbreaks among meat products. Food industry officials note that developing a similar test for produce would be difficult given the free-range parameters of many produce farms, but all players in the market note that safety improvements are necessary. Texas AM University Associate Professor Alejandro Castillo indicated that irradiating produce with 1.2 kilograys of electrons could be one solution to the E. coli problem, and Castillo notes that the leaves of spinach he tested did not change and may have had a longer shelf life as a result. Critics are concerned that these irradiation processes would provide consumers with a false sense of security, unless produce is marked with its origin and other identifiers so that outbreaks can be traced back quickly.
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Outbreaks Reveal Food Safety Net's Holes
Washington Post (12/11/06) P. A1; Shin, Annys

Several disease outbreaks traced to contaminated produce call attention to the fact that the nation's increasingly industrialized produce supply cannot be effectively overseen by federal and state regulations. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says that Americans are now more likely to be sickened from eating tainted produce than from any other food item, as fresh produce is being more widely distributed and consumed in greater quantities while the aging population has become more vulnerable to food-borne illness. People differ on what solutions should be implemented: whereas restaurants and food distributors are calling for self-regulation, consumer proponents consider tougher mandatory food safety standards and more rigorous enforcement to be the answer, while produce growers and packers would rather have a voluntary system with some mandatory oversight components. States and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are responsible for the safety of produce, but their jurisdiction does not extend beyond processing plants, and this has left government regulators with little option but to badger the produce industry to augment food safety by publishing voluntary guidelines and sending letters of warning. "The reality of FDA's situation is they don't have the basic inspectors to inspect the food supply they're in charge of," said CSPI food safety director Caroline Smith DeWaal. "They just don't have the people ... to manage this problem at the farm level." Recently, the center called on the FDA and the state of California to establish mandatory produce safety standards, and consumer advocates want Congress to grant more resources and enforcement powers to the agency.
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New Test Could Detect E. Coli Much Faster
cbs2chicago.com (12/11/06) Childers, Mary Ann

The U.S. Homeland Security Department is sponsoring Drexel University researchers in their effort to develop a new technology that food packagers and manufacturers can use to quickly and accurately detect the presence of E. coli bacteria. Current tests to detect the presence of E. coli typically take up to 24 hours, but the new technology developed by Drexel University researcher Raj Mutharasan detects E. coli within 10 minutes. The technology features a computer-based sensor that activates when E. coli is detected on a food sample. The meat industry is said to be interested in the technology, which is likely to be adopted first by food packagers to test food products before they are sent to stores. The Drexel researchers are also busy creating a small, inexpensive version of the technology that people can use to test food in their kitchens for E. coli. Spinach consumer Debbie James, who nearly died after being stricken by E. coli during September's outbreak, says that she would probably consider buying such a device if it became available.
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Safety Practices Surveyed
Science News (12/02/06) Vol. 170, No. 23, P. 365

Rice University's International Council on Nanotechnology surveyed 64 companies from the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia and found that most employ the same safety practices with nanotechnology as they use when working with larger materials with the same chemical composition. Kristen Kulinowski, the council's director, notes that these companies are worried about the possibility of special risks associated with nanomaterials, for which there are no regulations or voluntary standards governing their use. According to Kulinowski, "The question is whether nanoscale materials warrant any additional information, scrutiny, tests, or personal protective equipment." General guidance regarding nanomaterials has been issued by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
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Nanotechnology-Based Products to Accelerate Drug Discovery Developments—Report
Nanotechwire.com (12/01/06)

Nanotechnology-based solutions are the focus of new research from Frost & Sullivan entitled "The Role of Nanotechnology in European Drug Discovery." The overview addresses the nano-enabled tools, nano-materials, and nano-enabled drugs markets; nanotechnology, assay, biomolecule, dendrimer, and nanodelivery technologies; and strategic solutions for vendors in the market. Automated screening and other common technology processes are currently being embraced by pharmaceutical companies in Europe. Miniaturization, automation, speed, and assay reliability are all expected to be the benefits of new technology such as nanotechnology on the drug discovery process. According to the report, nanotechnology has the potential to improve diagnostic methods, lead to enhanced drug formulizations, and result in better drug delivery systems for disease therapy. Nonetheless, there are concerns about the potential impact of nano-particles and nano-materials that remain in the human body for some time. Moreover, researchers will need to take more of a comprehensive look at the issue of toxicity screening.
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Biochips Deliver
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (12/06) Vol. 5, No. 12, P. 1051

Labs interested in processing large volumes of DNA or protein-related assays should consider biochips, which can reduce processing time by running various tests simultaneously. Biochips carry with them chemical compounds that adhere to specific DNA sequences or antibodies, allowing scientists to study how those sequences act or react in given drug studies. When researchers are examining various drugs and their effects on ailments, databases that prioritize various biological pathways based upon the preferences of an illness can improve the efficiency of the testing process. Labs should seek out easily upgradeable technologies with high throughput capacities, such as Tm Bioscience's Tm100 Universal Array. Many researchers view quantifying a sample as a waste of time and energy, not to mention resources, but one of the latest technological advancements—NanoDrop ND-3300 Fluorospectrometer—allows scientists to quantify samples using surface tension, solid-state LEDs as an excitation source, and fluorescence. The ND-3300 examines the sample's wavelengths without the need for filter changes.
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Cancer Agency Works to Get Nanomedicine From Lab to Clinic
American Medical News (11/20/06) Vol. 49, No. 43, P. 29; Elliott, Victoria Stagg

The National Cancer Institute is making strides to ensure that nanomedicine is quickly moved from the lab to patients. In addition to mandating that researchers partner with industrial players who can commercialize the developments stemming from nanomedical research, NCI is working with the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop nanoscale guidelines and testing protocols. Nanomedicine is viewed by experts as a way to ensure that patients receive the best possible treatments early on, rather than waiting months to determine whether a drug is successfully shrinking tumors. It could also help scientists better monitor cancer's progression, make clinical trials more efficient, and spark the development of drugs that do not kill healthy tissue as they eliminate diseased cells.
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