Rice center to study therapeutic and environmental impact of nanotechnology

CONTACT: Lia Unrau
PHONE:
(713) 348-6778
EMAIL: unrau@rice.edu
OR
CONTACT: Margot Dimond
PHONE:
(713) 348-6775
EMAIL: mdimond@rice.edu

RICE
CENTER TO STUDY THERAPEUTIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF NANOTECHNOLOGY

National Science Foundation Funds First Center to Explore Intersection of
Nanotechnology, Biology, and Environmental Science

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

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 Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers funded by the National
Science Foundation, is the first to focus on applications of nanoscience to
biology and the environment. The $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 Renssalaer
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, are currently 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 Hackerman Professor
of Chemistry and professor of physics at Rice, will direct the center’s
long-range vision. Smalley won the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the
discovery of fullerenes and is currently the director of Rice’s Center for
Nanoscale 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 center’s industrial
component includes a partnership with Rice’s 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 non-science journals
such as The Economist continue to be full of news on nanoscale science and
nanotechnology,” said Malcolm Gillis, president of Rice University. “In recent
weeks alone, numerous nanotechnology 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
Technology.”

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