Tiny’s big promise

Back Story • Nanotechnology rises; some want a pause

By Lee van der Voo

The Portland Tribune, Oct 30, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

L.E. BASKOW / TRIBUNE PHOTO

At Portland State University, Erik Sánchez shows a calibration sample covered with nanoparticles that are shown magnified on a screen behind him. The sample is used to calibrate one of Sánchez’s many microscopes prior to use. His microscopy lab has an eye on the world of nanotechnology, which is growing steadily in Oregon and the nation.

For seven years, Dr. Ed Neuwelt of Oregon Health & Science University has used tiny particles of rust to help locate tumors in people’s brains.

In a clinical trial that has involved an estimated 150 patients to date, Neuwelt has injected iron oxide into people’s bodies intravenously, then watched via brain scans as the particles percolate across the blood-brain barrier.

The rust particles – so tiny they’re called nanoparticles, 1/100,000th the width of a human hair or smaller – adhere to inflamed cells, allowing Neuwelt to learn more about conditions like multiple sclerosis, tumors, strokes and other trauma.

“They are remarkably safe, and they’re very effective, easy to use, and give us incredible information,” Neuwelt said.

But the effect on human health and the environment of the type of particles Neuwelt and thousands of other scientists are working with is lately the subject of much discussion.

The Environmental Protection Agency is beginning an inquiry into the effects of nanomaterials, asking companies to explain how and how often they use nanoparticles and to turn over any information they have about their toxicity.

To talk about the promise of nanotech, manmade design on its smallest scale, sounds at first like something cut from a science-fiction film: windows that will someday clean themselves, texturized pants that let a coffee spill run right over the legs.

In this future defined by the smallest particles known, nanoparticles may be the catalyst to degrading old environmental spills, filtering contaminants out of air and water, or finding and diagnosing cancers, and then treating them.

And it isn’t fiction.

Nanotechnology today is a huge player in industry. Already there are more than 500 nanotech products on the market – products that use nanoparticles to create unique properties.

Carbon nanotubes, or microscopic tubes made of carbon, are used to strengthen tennis rackets and golf clubs. Other nanoparticles are used to make antibacterial coatings on surgical tools, create stain-resistant clothing and furniture, build cosmetics, even protect your feet in antibacterial socks.

While it’s predicted that nanotech will touch a significant percentage of the world’s economic products within a few years, Oregon taxpayers are pouring millions into laboratories and research statewide, carving out the state’s unique niche in the growing industry, from Portland to Corvallis.

But nanotech is not without controversy.

Some environmental groups have pressed the EPA to ban the use of untested nanoparticles in consumer goods. Others want the the federal government to develop regulations for the particles and their handling. Industry advocates have pushed the EPA to collect more information about nanoparticle use before making decisions about regulation.

Some companies, like DuPont, have developed their own handling guidelines and pressed for academics and industry alike to embrace them.

“I can only tell you that these nanoparticles are very important in terms of what they can do. It’s not even a close race between what they can do versus any toxicity,” Neuwelt said. “Most of my patients have serious neurological disorders, and they’re happy to learn what’s going on in their brain.”

Need it? Build it

It takes only a few minutes in Erik Sánchez’s laboratory in the Science Building II at Portland State University to understand the excitement surrounding nanotech.

Sánchez himself has the kind of enthusiastic brilliance that’s been the hallmark of so much breakthrough science.

He built his first laser after leaving a career in the arts, and designed a breakthrough microscope while doing postdoctoral work at the Department of Energy and then at Harvard University. He now spends nine to 12 hours a day on the PSU campus, acting as assistant professor in the physics and electrical and computer engineering departments.

In addition to teaching courses, Sánchez runs a laboratory dedicated to microscopy, the study of microscopes.

The lab, home to about 11 dedicated students, spills over with computers and gadgets. At first glance, its shelved walls look like a high-tech graveyard, loaded with discarded computer equipment, PC towers and monitors.

In fact, some of these old computers are running microscopes. Some don’t have a use yet, instead awaiting a kind of Transformers future, destined to evolve into the next best eye into the nanotech world.

The monitors around the room and microscopes that stand, in some cases, nearly as high as the ceiling are the industry’s window into the smallest particles humans have learned to see.

“We put a lot of these together from little parts and pieces, everything from eBay to parts stores,” Sánchez said. “If I want a particular item, I have to make it.”

It could be in this room that science makes its next technological breakthrough, seeing the next smallest object. The state of Oregon, seizing that potential in its resident scientists, has placed its bet.

State makes a move

The first capital investments came in 2003, when the state funneled $20 million toward expanding nanotech studies at PSU, the University of Oregon and an Oregon State University lab at Hewlett-Packard Co.

At the same time, the Oregon Legislature invested $1 million in the state’s first signature research center, called ONAMI, or the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, based in Corvallis.

The intent of ONAMI was to create jobs, so the agency’s two-man staff does not own its own research equipment or employ scientists. Instead, ONAMI works with partners to promote innovation and growth in Oregon’s nanotech sector.

The result is a unique collaboration between universities and the private sector that expands Oregon’s foothold in nanotechnology.

Four organizations – PSU, OSU, UO and the U.S. Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in Richland, Wash. – join with companies like Hewlett-Packard, Intel Corp. and Xerox Corp., as well as with educational affiliates like OHSU, to network through the institute.

They share the state leaders’ goal of creating jobs and growing the nanotech industry in Oregon.

Between 2005 and 2007, ONAMI received another $16 million in operating funds from the state, investing most of the money to bridge the period between exploration and creating a fundable company.

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