CU-led group awarded $2.8 million to develop biomedical nanodevices

By David Brand

The state of New York, through its New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR), has awarded Cornell $2.8 million over two years to establish a new Center for Advanced Technology (CAT).

The award was the largest among five announced by Gov. George E. Pataki, April 19, to institutions in Ithaca, New York City, Rochester and Syracuse. The five new CATs, which will share $10 million in state funding, are part of a state government effort "to create a comprehensive and long-term plan to foster the growth of high-tech and biotech industries across the state," Pataki said.

Project director Carl Batt, left, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in CornellŐs Department of Food Science; Antje Baeumner, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering; and Carl E. Haynes, president of Tompkins Cortland Community College, look at the NYSTAR web site in BattŐs lab in Stocking Hall. The state agency has awarded $2.8 million to Cornell to establish a new Center for Advanced Technology, in partnership with TC3. Richard Killen/University Photography

The Cornell-based CAT, to be called the Alliance for Nanomedical Technologies, will use industrial backing to research and develop microscale optical detection devices -- working at the molecular level -- that could have significant impact in biomedical research. (The term "nano" refers to a near-atomic measurement; a nanometer, for example, is the width of three silicon atoms.)

Project director Carl Batt, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in Cornell's Department of Food Science, described the alliance as "a gathering of scientists and engineers from academe and from the private sector who will look at nanobiotechnology with a specific focus on applications primarily to medical diagnostics, as well as to medical research devices." The devices investigated by alliance researchers, he said, "will be designed in consideration of the needs of the private sector and to encourage job creation in New York state."

It is hoped, Batt noted, that technology developed at Cornell through the alliance will result in the formation of new companies in the biomedical field. "A collaborative effort like this could be the lifeblood for small companies and could have the potential for starting up a number of new companies," he said.

Among Cornell's academic partners in the alliance will be Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) of the State University of New York, which will research and develop education and training needs for employees of companies in the nanomedical field. TC3's Business Development Training Center already delivers a broad range of training services to regional businesses and industry. "Our charge is to identify new technologies and fields of employment and to develop programs that prepare people to work in these new careers," said Carl E. Haynes, TC3 president. "This new technology requires new skills, and we want to provide the programs that people need to be successful in this field."

An immediate result of the state grant will be the construction at Cornell of a $450,000 start-of-the-art fabrication facility -- to be called nanoBioFab -- in Kimball Hall in Cornell's College of Engineering. The facility will be built specifically for handling biomaterials and will serve as a model for satellite facilities that could be built around the state to support the private sector and as training facilities.

For Cornell, one of the unusual aspects of the alliance is its partnership with about a dozen private-sector concerns that have made a commitment to support the research, ranging from optical detection to cell-based sensors. The companies include Clark MXR Inc., Kraft Foods and Welch Allyn Inc. Batt envisions the alliance working with companies on specific development projects, or working independently on "generic technology that will enable the growth of New York state companies."

He said: "What we will have here is an opportunity for a number of companies to come in and talk about their generic technological needs, even if these technologies don't ultimately result in a device."

A working model for collaboration, said Batt, are agreements between the Cornell Nanobiotechnology Center (NBTC), a facility largely supported by the National Science Foundation, and companies such as Leica Microsystems >in Buffalo. Leica has supported the yearlong research and development of a microscale optical-detection device that it plans to put into production.

Research now under way at Cornell that could result in commercial development is indicative of the interdisciplinary nature of the alliance, said Batt. It includes cell-based sensors, the work of Barbara Baird, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell. Because some cells exhibit allergic response, they hold the promise of being able to detect allergens or toxins in the environment. Another potential project for commercial development is biological "scaffolding" that can provide the architecture for cell growth.

This research is proposed by Michael Spencer, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Jun-Lin Guan, associate professor of molecular medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

These Cornell researchers, plus about a dozen others, will be among the core group of academics associated with the alliance. Many of them already are associated with NBTC, whose director is Harold Craighead, Cornell's Charles W. Lake Jr. Professor of Engineering. Batt also is co-director of NBTC.

In addition, Batt said, the alliance will collaborate with the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility at Cornell, a national center supported by the NSF, and the Institute for Biotechnology and Life Science Technologies at Cornell, which includes Cornell's first CAT, the New York State Center for Advanced Technology in Biotechnology.

"We will rely on the administrative experience of the older CAT to guide us through the state process," said Batt.

All inventions and discoveries springing from the alliance that might result in company startups or commercial licensing will flow through the Cornell Research Foundation.