Center aimed at nano impact on environment, biotech

Center
aimed at nano impact on environment, biotech
…………………………………………………………………

BY MARGOT DIMOND
Rice News Staff

Moving nanotechnology
beyond molecular-scale electronics and science-fiction nanobots
is the goal of a Rice University research center launched
last week.

To achieve its
goal, the center will focus on a seemingly mundane element:
water.

Researchers at
the new Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology
will use their knowledge of how nanometer-sized materials
interact with water — the most abundant solvent on
the planet and the medium of all life — to develop
new medical therapies and solve persistent problems in environmental
engineering.

The Rice center,
one of six major Nano-scale Science and Engineering Centers
funded by the National Science Foundation, is the first
to focus on applications of nanoscience to biology and the
environment. A $10.5 million grant will enable educational
and industrial outreach activities in addition to research.

The other grant
recipients include Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Northwestern
and Rensselaer Polytechnic.

“Our goal
is to shape nanoscience into a discipline with the relevance,
triumphs and vitality of a modern-day polymer science —
into something that people use every day,” stated Vicki
Colvin, associate professor of chemistry at Rice and co-director
of the center.

“This not
only requires nanoscientists to look outside their own field,
but for research leaders in other fields to look for ways
to apply nanoscience to their own problems,” she said.
“Our center will serve as a hub for such collaboration
and as a resource for educating the public about nanotechnology.”

Research activities
will emphasize the interface between nanomaterials and water-based
systems, ranging in size from biomolecules and cells to
whole-organisms and the surrounding environment. This “wet/dry”
interface is key to applications in medicine and environmental
engineering. Gold nanoshells injected into cancer cells,
for instance, currently are being tested as a cancer therapy.
A likely environmental application of nanomaterials is wastewater
treatment; nanostructured materials should make efficient
filtration systems.

The center has
attracted a breadth of expertise in all three of the areas
under its research umbrella. In addition to Colvin, Richard
E. Smalley, the Gene and Norman Hack-erman Professor of
Chemistry and professor of physics at Rice, will direct
the center’s long-range vision. Smalley was a joint
recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery
of fullerenes and is the director of Rice’s Center
for Nano-scale Science and Technology. Mark Wiesner, professor
of civil and environmental engineering and director of Rice’s
Energy and Environmental Systems Institute, will lead the
new center’s environmental research arm, and Jennifer
West, associate professor of bioengineering, will lead its
biological component.

In a three-pronged
approach, educational and industrial outreach programs at
the center will complement research activities. The centerpiece
is an initiative to train ninth-grade Houston Independent
School District teachers in the challenging discovery-based
teaching style so important to science education. The programs
also include curriculum and textbook development and funds
to support summer undergraduate research.

The industrial
component includes a partnership with the Jesse H. Jones
Graduate School of Management. This program will encourage
the transfer of center technology to startup ventures by
bringing together scientists, students and business experts
interested in nanoscience applications.

“The pages
of Science magazine, Scientific American, as well as highly
regarded nonscience journals such as The Economist continue
to be full of news on nanoscale science and nanotech-nology,”
said Rice President Malcolm Gillis. “In recent weeks
alone, numerous nanotech-nology articles have appeared citing
superconductivity of buckyballs, single-molecular computer
switches, golden nanoshells in treating cancer and the growing
list of useful properties of carbon nanotubes in computing,
biomedicine and materials.

“Rice is
proud to be the home of nearly 40 scientists and engineers
working in nanoscale teaching and research and the new Center
for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology.”

Nanoscale science,
engineering and technology are focused on a scale ranging
from the size of an atom to that of large molecules.