News Archive

2010 Innovation Luncheon to take place on September 14th

September 1, 2010

The Office of Technology Commercialization will celebrate Rensselaer inventors by hosting a luncheon on September 14, 2010 at noon in the Banquet room in Russell Sage Dining Hall. All are invited to join us to honor the inventors. Francine Berman, Vice President of Research, will speak about Technology and Innovation. Patent plaques will be awarded to all Rensselaer inventors who have received a United States issued patent at Rensselaer between September 2009 and August 2010.

For more information or to RSVP, please contact Natasha Sanford at sanfon@rpi.edu.

Helping Hydrogen: Lemelson Winner Tackles Challenge of Hydrogen Storage

May 26, 2010

From Inside Rensselaer Newsletter

Determined to play a key role in solving global dependency on fossil fuels, Javad Rafiee, a doctoral student in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, has developed a new method for storing hydrogen at room temperature.

Rafiee has created a novel form of engineered graphene that exhibits hydrogen storing capacity far exceeding any other known material. For this innovation, which brings the world a step closer to realizing the widespread adoption of clean, abundant hydrogen as a fuel for transportation vehicles, Rafiee is the winner of the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize.

"Invention is the key ingredient of progress, and the Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize rallies our students to innovate world-changing solutions for the grand challenges facing all people of all nations," said President Shirley Ann Jackson. "Javad Rafiee has the vision of a robust national hydrogen economy and a world less dependent on oil and gasoline. I applaud his efforts toward this noble goal, and congratulate him on this prestigious award. I thank all of the entrants and finalists for their effort, zeal, and for being ambassadors of progress."

Rafiee is the fourth recipient of the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize. The prize is awarded annually to a Rensselaer senior or graduate student who has created or improved a product or process, applied a technology in a new way, redesigned a system, or demonstrated remarkable inventiveness in other ways.

Enabling Greener Transportation With Graphene Hydrogen storage has proven to be a significant bottleneck to the advancement and proliferation of fuel cell and hydrogen technologies in cars, trucks, and other applications. Rafiee has developed a new method for manufacturing and using graphene, an atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged like a nanoscale chain-link fence, to store hydrogen. His solution is inexpensive and easy to produce.

With adviser and Rensselaer MANE Professor Nikhil Koratkar, Rafiee used a combination of mechanical grinding, plasma treatment, and annealing to engineer the atomic structure of graphene to maximize its hydrogen storage capacity. This new graphene has exhibited a hydrogen storage capacity of 14 percent by weight at room temperature--far exceeding any other known material.

This 14-percent capacity surpasses the U.S. Department of Energy 2015 target of realizing a material with hydrogen storage capacity of 9 percent by weight at room temperature. Rafiee said his graphene is also one of the first known materials to surpass the Department of Energy's 2010 target of 6 percent.

After oxidizing graphite powder and mechanically grinding the resulting graphite oxide, Rafiee synthesized the graphene by thermal shock followed by annealing and exposure to argon plasma. These treatments play an important role in increasing the binding energy of hydrogen to the graphene surface at room temperature, as hydrogen tends to cluster and layer around carbon atoms.

Talented Engineer

Rafiee joined Rensselaer in 2008, following an internship at the City University of Hong Kong and earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical and manufacturing engineering from the University of Tabriz in Iran. At Rensselaer, Rafiee and his brother, Mohammad, joined Koratkar's research group.

"Javad is extremely knowledgeable, has great confidence in his abilities, and has demonstrated a very high level of creativity and originality. However, it is his deep passion and enthusiasm for research and discovery coupled with his amazing drive and energy that differentiates him from his peers," Koratkar said. "This passion and excitement for discovery and innovation is not something that can be taught or learned. It is an intrinsic quality of an individual--either you have it or you don't--and Javad is the most intellectually curious student I have ever had the privilege to advise here at Rensselaer."

In his time at Rensselaer, Rafiee, from Tehran, Iran, has authored five, and co-authored three, journal papers in various disciplines. He expects to earn his doctorate in 2011. Following graduation, Rafiee and his brother plan to start their own business with a focus on clean energy and green manufacturing.

The $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize is funded through a partnership with the Lemelson-MIT Program, which has awarded the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize to outstanding student inventors at MIT since 1995.

For commercialization inquiries about the graphene material technology (OTC case 1323) email otc@rpi.edu.

Free Research Commercialization Introductory Course Online

March 3, 2010

For most researchers, commercialization is ultimately about delivering the benefits of their research to actual patients or end users so as to have a real and tangible impact on the world. However, most often it is a foreign, confusing and mysterious process seemingly populated by people who think and speak in very different ways from your typical researcher. The Research Commercialization Introductory Course is designed to help researchers better understand what research commercialization really is and how it actually works. Even for researchers who purportedly want nothing to do with commercial activity, key concepts like patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, intellectual property rights, and assignment of IPRs are inescapable in the simplest employment or research agreements with universities, governments or industry. As a result, every researcher needs an understanding of basic commercialization concepts to be an informed person and understand what is going on around them in connection with their research activity. Willful blindness is seldom an optimal strategy for intelligent researchers. The Research Commercialization Introductory Course is recommended for all medical, science and engineering researchers in public or private research institutions (e.g., grad students, post-docs, professional staff and faculty) and in commercial enterprises (e.g., startups, SBIRs, research-based small businesses and Global 1000). Areas covered in the free 9-lecture course include intellectual property, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, licensing agreements, employment agreements, consulting agreements, creating and funding companies, marketing strategy, product development, tech transfer, early stage funding and federally funded SBIR programs Each lecture is a 90-minute online webinar. There will be expert guest speakers for each session. For more information, visit http://213.175.220.78/~courses/

2009 Inventor Recognition Luncheon hosted by the OTC September 24th

September 8, 2009

The Office of Technology Commercialization has planned its annual Inventor Recognition Luncheon for Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at noon in the Russell Sage Dining Hall Banquet Room. The Office will recognize and award plaques to all current Rensselaer faculty and students who had U.S. Patents issued between 2/24/08 and 8/31/09. All Rensselaer faculty, staff, and students are invited to join us in celebration of the efforts. RSVP required. For more information, please contact Natasha Sanford at 276-3675.

Student Developer of Versatile G-gels Wins $30,000 Lemelson-Rensselaer Prize

March 9, 2009

Yuehua Tony Yu's innovation could lead to new medical devices, drug delivery technologies.

A student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has developed a new method for harnessing the enormous potential of nanoparticles, which could lead to a new generation of medical devices, drug delivery technologies, and other applications.

Yuehua Tony Yu, a doctoral student in Rensselaer's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, is the first researcher to create binary guanosine gels, or G-gels, with unique, highly tunable properties. The discovery, which could enable a practical, cost-effective, and scalable method for better exploiting the beneficial properties of many nanoparticles, earned Yu the $30,000 Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize.

Future global challenges will demand leaders who are not only skilled scientists and engineers, but also innovators adept at problem solving and out-of-the-box thinking. The Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize recognizes ingenuity and inventiveness, while inspiring students toward excellence, said Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson. Yuehua Yu is a shining example of this innovative spirit. A keen thinker and passionate researcher, he enjoys a rich understanding of technology, as well as a sharply focused determination to use his abilities for the betterment of all. We celebrate his achievement, and applaud all of the finalists for their dedication and effort. May they, and all of us, continue to foster a healthy scientific curiosity, and an unyielding drive for progress.

Yu is the third recipient of the $30,000 Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize. The prize, first given in 2007, is awarded annually to a Rensselaer senior or graduate student who has created or improved a product or process, applied a technology in a new way, redesigned a system or in other ways demonstrated remarkable inventiveness.

For videos and photos of the winner and award finalists, as well as a Webcast of the announcement ceremony, please visit: www.eng.rpi.edu/lemelson.

Helping hand for nanotech Breakthroughs in nanotechnology hold the promise of touching and revolutionizing medicine, energy production and storage, water purification, electronics, and a host of other diverse fields. A key challenge for many researchers working with nanoparticles is simply getting the nanoscopic materials, some of which measure only a few billionths of a meter in length, where they need to go. Using liquid to disperse nanoparticles seems like a natural fit, but most materials have a tendency to aggregate, or clump together, when placed in liquids. Current solutions for properly dispersing nanomaterials in liquid often impact the materials' properties, cause irreversible damage, or result in concentrations too low to be effective.

To address this problem, Yu investigated guanosine gels, or "G-gels." Yu was the first researcher to develop a G-gel comprised of more than one guanosine compound. He discovered that some of these new binary G-gels were liquid at low temperature, but formed firm gels when heated to room or body temperature. Further study showed that binary G-gels were highly tunable.

This ability to easily convert the G-gels from liquid to gel, and back again, was a natural fit for the reliable delivery of nanoparticles. Yu's G-gels proved to be an inexpensive and scalable means to gently, nondestructively disperse single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and other nanoparticles at a high concentration. By simply controlling the temperature, Yu engineered G-gels that can selectively solubilize specific SWNTs, and then be easily removed from the site after the SWNTs are in place. The gels can be tuned to selectively solubilize SWNTs based on different properties, including conductivity and structure.

Another key application of G-gels is their ability to preserve, and even restore, enzyme activity. Because they begin as liquids and form gels at body temperature, the G-gels could be used to encapsulate live cells, enzymes, or other materials for delivery into the human body, with potential applications in drug and gene delivery, as well as implantable devices. Yu has also demonstrated the ability of G-gels to keep certain enzymes stable for months at room temperature, which has captured the attention of cosmetics and sunscreen companies.

Gifted scientist Yu joined Rensselaer as a doctoral student in 2004, after earning his bachelor's degree in chemistry and master's degree in polymer science from Nankai University in China. In early 2005 he joined the research group of Rensselaer Professor Linda McGown, who heads the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

"Tony is one of the most brilliant and most creative students with whom I've ever worked. The elegance and simplicity of his inventions belie their novelty and ingenuity," said McGown, who is also Yu's academic adviser. "It's been a privilege to work with such a gifted scientist."

In his time at Rensselaer, Yu has filed for two patents related to his G-gel research, co-authored two journal papers, and delivered 10 presentations. He received the prestigious Rensselaer 2008 Founders Award for of Excellence, as well as the 2008 Slezak Memorial Fellowship and Baruch '60 Award for Excellence in Energy-Related Research from Rensselaer. He is also an active member and former coach of Rensselaer intramural soccer and basketball teams.

Yu hails from the scenic city of Jiujiang, China, near the foot of Lushan Mountain. He expects to earn his doctorate in analytical chemistry from Rensselaer this spring.

Yu's wife, Yuexi Wang, is a graduate student in chemistry at Rensselaer. Their daughter, Grace, is 8 months old.

The Lemelson-MIT Program Yu joins last year's winner of the $30,000 Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize, graduate student Martin Schubert, who invented the first polarized light emitting diodes (LED), an innovation that promises to improve the energy-efficiency and performance of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for televisions, computers, cell phones, cameras, and other devices. In 2007, Rensselaer doctoral student Brian Schulkin won the first-ever $30,000 Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize for developing the first portable terahertz sensing device, the "Mini-Z," which has since been commercialized and brought to market.

The $30,000 Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize is funded through a partnership with the Lemelson-MIT Program, which has awarded the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize to outstanding student inventors at MIT since 1995.

Geoffrey von Maltzahn, a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, is the 2009 winner of the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. Von Maltzahn's inventions include a new class of therapeutics that provide more precision to cancer ablation, and a communicating system of nanoparticles to more efficiently deliver drugs to tumors, enhancing the overall efficacy of cancer therapy. He is also the co-founder of two companies dedicated to this research and development. More information is available at http://web.mit.edu/invent/n-pressreleases/n-press-09SP.html.

"The Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prize finalists and winners have the potential to be the technological and entrepreneurial leaders of tomorrow," states Joshua Schuler, Executive Director of the Lemelson-MIT Program.

"The winners were selected based on the potential societal impact of their inventions, their ability to act as role models, and their unwavering dedication to invention. These innovators are helping to close the gap between science and societal needs by making contributions that will foster cultural appreciation for invention's role in strengthening the U.S. economy."

The Lemelson-MIT Program recognizes outstanding inventors, encourages sustainable new solutions to real-world problems, and enables and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention.

Jerome H. Lemelson, one of U.S. history's most prolific inventors, and his wife, Dorothy, founded the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. It is funded by the Lemelson Foundation, a philanthropy that celebrates and supports inventors and entrepreneurs in order to strengthen social and economic life in the U.S. and developing countries.

For more information about the Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize, go to http://web.mit.edu/invent/.

For information about commercialization, see Case 1003 under FIND TECHNOLOGY or contact Natasha Sanford at sanfon@rpi.edu.

Story written by Michael Mullaney (mullam@rpi.edu)

All-angle Absorbing Antireflection Coating Layers for Solar Cell Applications

February 23, 2009

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered and demonstrated a new method for overcoming two major hurdles facing solar energy. By developing a new antireflective coating that boosts the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels and allows those panels to absorb the entire solar spectrum from nearly any angle, the research team has moved academia and industry closer to realizing high-efficiency, cost-effective solar power.

?To get maximum efficiency when converting solar power into electricity, you want a solar panel that can absorb nearly every single photon of light, regardless of the sun?s position in the sky,? said Shawn-Yu Lin, professor of physics at Rensselaer and a member of the university?s Future Chips Constellation, who led the research project. ?Our new antireflective coating makes this possible.?

Results of the year-long project are explained in the paper ?Realization of a Near Perfect Antireflection Coating for Silicon Solar Energy,? published the journal Optics Letters.

An untreated silicon solar cell only absorbs 67.4 percent of sunlight shone upon it ? meaning that nearly one-third of that sunlight is reflected away and thus unharvestable. From an economic and efficiency perspective, this unharvested light is wasted potential and a major barrier hampering the proliferation and widespread adoption of solar power.

After a silicon surface was treated with Lin?s new nanoengineered reflective coating, however, the material absorbed 96.21 percent of sunlight shone upon it ? meaning that only 3.79 percent of the sunlight was reflected and unharvested. This huge gain in absorption was consistent across the entire spectrum of sunlight, from UV to visible light and infrared, and moves solar power a significant step forward toward economic viability.

Lin?s new coating also successfully tackles the tricky challenge of angles.

Most surfaces and coatings are designed to absorb light ? i.e., be antireflective ? and transmit light ? i.e., allow the light to pass through it ? from a specific range of angles. Eyeglass lenses, for example, will absorb and transmit quite a bit of light from a light source directly in front of them, but those same lenses would absorb and transmit considerably less light if the light source were off to the side or on the wearer?s periphery.

This same is true of conventional solar panels, which is why some industrial solar arrays are mechanized to slowly move throughout the day so their panels are perfectly aligned with the sun?s position in the sky. Without this automated movement, the panels would not be optimally positioned and would therefore absorb less sunlight. The tradeoff for this increased efficiency, however, is the energy needed to power the automation system, the cost of upkeeping this system, and the possibility of errors or misalignment.

Lin?s discovery could antiquate these automated solar arrays, as his antireflective coating absorbs sunlight evenly and equally from all angles. This means that a stationary solar panel treated with the coating would absorb 96.21 percent of sunlight no matter the position of the sun in the sky. So along with significantly better absorption of sunlight, Lin?s discovery could also enable a new generation of stationary, more cost-efficient solar arrays.

?At the beginning of the project, we asked ?would it be possible to create a single antireflective structure that can work from all angles?? Then we attacked the problem from a fundamental perspective, tested and fine-tuned our theory, and created a working device,? Lin said. Rensselaer physics graduate student Mei-Ling Kuo played a key role in the investigations.

Typical antireflective coatings are engineered to transmit light of one particular wavelength. Lin?s new coating stacks seven of these layers, one on top of the other, in such a way that each layer enhances the antireflective properties of the layer below it. These additional layers also help to ?bend? the flow of sunlight to an angle that augments the coating?s antireflective properties. This means that each layer not only transmits sunlight, it also helps to capture any light that may have otherwise been reflected off of the layers below it.

The seven layers, each with a height of 50 nanometers to 100 nanometers, are made up of silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide nanorods positioned at an oblique angle ? each layer looks and functions similar to a dense forest where sunlight is ?captured? between the trees. The nanorods were attached to a silicon substrate via chemical vapor disposition, and Lin said the new coating can be affixed to nearly any photovoltaic materials for use in solar cells, including III-V multi-junction and cadmium telluride.

Along with Lin and Kuo, co-authors of the paper include E. Fred Schubert, Wellfleet Senior Constellation Professor of Future Chips at Rensselaer; Research Assistant Professor Jong Kyu Kim; physics graduate student David Poxson; and electrical engineering graduate student Frank Mont.

Funding for the project was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy?s Office of Basic Energy Sciences, as well as the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Written by: Michael Mullaney, RPI
For licensing informtion contact: Paul Freddette, fredep@rpi.edu

Lighting Research Center Develops Framework for Assessing Light Pollutions

November 4, 2008

The emergence of electric lighting at night nearly a century ago has positively affected countless aspects of human life, ranging from improved safety and security to stronger economic development. But too much nighttime illumination can cause problems for stargazing, animal health, and may even compromise sleep, often leading some people to say ?lights out.?

Balancing public and private interests for nighttime lighting has been a difficult undertaking, as too little lighting may increase safety and security issues, while too much lighting may cause problems for the environment and for human well-being. Scientists in the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer have developed the first-ever comprehensive method for predicting and measuring various aspects of light pollution.

The method, called Outdoor Site-Lighting Performance (OSP), allows users to quantify ? and thus optimize ? the performance of existing and planned lighting designs and applications to minimize excessive or obtrusive light leaving the boundaries of a property.

?Until now the conversation about light pollution has been just that ? a lot of talk with no data,? said Mark Rea, LRC director and principal investigator on the project. ?The Lighting Research Center?s Outdoor Site-Lighting Performance measurement method is a powerful tool, allowing users to address three important aspects of light pollution ? sky glow, light trespass, and discomfort glare ? quantitatively and at the same time.?

Sky glow is defined as total amount of light leaving a property. Light trespass describes the amount of light crossing from one property boundary onto another, and discomfort glare predicts the level at which light coming from a luminaire is uncomfortable for viewers.

Although the three factors are independent of each other, each is measured using OSP, allowing users to control and maximize the positive benefits of nighttime lighting, while simultaneously minimizing their negative consequences for the public, according to Rea.

Developed as a practical system for assessing outdoor lighting performance, the OSP method can be used with any commercial lighting software. Using this software, the designer establishes a calculation ?box? following the natural division between a public and private space, the property line.

In order to provide insights into the values of glow, trespass, and glare produced by nighttime lighting, Rea and LRC scientists Jennifer Brons and John Bullough worked with application engineers to study 125 lighting designs for four common nighttime lighting applications ? car parking lots, roadways, sports fields, and plazas.

A database of results has been created to help engineers compare the performance of their own projects to the glow, trespass, and glare levels measured at nighttime lighting applications located across North America and Europe.

Bullough says a more extensive, continually growing database updated by the lighting community would be invaluable for making systematic progress in reducing light pollution.

Based on the 125 sites examined, LRC scientists have developed provisional limits for glow, trespass, and glare, offered as starting points for subsequent discussion among all stakeholders in nighttime lighting, according to Rea.

OSP can be used by lighting engineers immediately, particularly for the investigation of glow and trespass (glare analyses are more complex to perform and current commercial software does not readily allow them), and can help users compare several lighting design alternatives for the same site.

The research was funded by Acuity Brands Lighting, Lumec, Philips Lighting, and R-Tech Schreder.

Rensselaer's 2008 Inventor's Luncheon hosted by the OTC

May 15, 2008

The Office of Technology Commercialization at Rensselaer will celebrate the annual Inventor's Luncheon on May 21, 2008 at noon in the Alumni Conference room at the Heffner Alumni House. All are invited to join us to rejoice in innovation at Rensselaer. Laban Coblentz, the new Chief of Staff and Associate Vice President for Policy and Planning, will be the guest speaker. Patent plaques will be awarded to all innovators who have received an issued patent at Rensselaer between May 2007 and February 2008. For more information, please contact Natasha Sanford at (518) 276-3675 or sanfon@rpi.edu.

Biochip May Replace Lab Rats

February 13, 2008

TROY, N.Y. - The lab rat of the future may have no whiskers and no tail, and might not even be a rat at all.

With a European ban looming on animal testing for cosmetics, companies are giving a hard look at high-tech alternatives like the small, rectangular glass chip professor Jonathan Dordick holds up to the light in his lab at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The chip looks like a standard microscope slide, but it holds hundreds of tiny white dots loaded with human cell cultures and enzymes. It's designed to mimic human reactions to potentially toxic chemical compounds, meaning critters like rats and mice may no longer need to be on the front line of tests for new blockbuster drugs or wrinkle creams.

Dordick and fellow chemical engineering professor Douglas Clark, of the University of California, Berkeley, lead a team of researchers planning to market the chip through their company, Solidus Biosciences, by next year. Hopes are high that the chip and other "in vitro" tests _ literally, tests in glass, will provide cheap, efficient alternatives to animal testing.

No one expects the chips to totally replace animals just yet, but their ability to flag toxins could spare animals discomfort or death.

"At the end of the day, you have fewer animals being tested," said Dordick.

Medical advances ranging from polio vaccines to artificial heart valves owe a debt to legions of lab rats, mice, rabbits, dogs monkeys and pigs. Animals, mostly mice, are still routinely used to test the toxicity of chemical compounds.

Animal testing also still has an essential role in making sure new pharmaceutical products are safe and effective for humans, said Taylor Bennett, senior science adviser to the National Association for Biomedical Researchers. Animal studies generally are needed before the federal Food and Drug Administration will approve clinical trials for a drug.

"The technology is not yet there to go from idea to patient application without using animals," Bennett said.

Animal testing can be slow, though, and some researchers question how well an animal's response to a chemical can predict human reactions.

In addition, the public is increasingly queasy about animal testing, especially the idea of inflicting pain for products like new lipsticks or eye shadows. The movement against animal testing has been especially strong across the Atlantic, where the European Union is set to enact its ban on animal testing for cosmetics in March 2009.

Cosmetics companies have greatly reduced animal testing, though they still may use it to test the safety of a new ingredient, said John Bailey, executive vice president of the Personal Care Products Council, an industry group.

Alternatives to animal tests include synthetic skin substitutes and computer simulations. But in vitro products show the most promise because they can are efficient, fast and easy to manipulate, said Dr. Alan Goldberg, director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing at Johns Hopkins University.

"There's no question that it's the strategy of the future," Goldberg said.

Bailey agrees that in vitro chips hold the most promise, but said the chips still need to be validated before companies can have more confidence in them. He noted that chips have limitations when it comes to risk assessment, such as determining if particular doses of a substance pose a cancer risk.

The product developed by Dordick and Clark consists of two glass slides. The first, called the MetaChip, has rows of little blots containing human liver enzymes. The other slide, the DataChip, contains an identical array of blots which, depending on the test, could be live human bladder, liver, kidney, heart, skin or lung cell cultures. Sandwiched together, the two chips mimic the human body's reaction to compounds.

If the cells die or stop growing, it's a sign that a toxin was present.

Troy-based Solidus has received about $3 million in federal money, including grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Dordick said a pharmaceutical company and a cosmetic company are testing the chip and they hope Solidus will have a product on the market by late 2009.

Goldberg notes that the movements toward in vitro and away from animal testing is incremental _ even optimistic assessments measure progress in decades. But he still believes there may well be a day when the lab rat becomes a thing of the past.

"At some time in the far future my suspicion is yes," he said, "because we're doing it stepwise by stepwise."

Using Carbon Nanotubes to Seek and Destroy Anthrax Toxin and Other Harmful Proteins

December 10, 2007

New technology could enable new cancer treatment techniques and antibacterial coatings

Troy, N.Y.-Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new way to seek out specific proteins, including dangerous proteins such as anthrax toxin, and render them harmless using nothing but light. The technique lends itself to the creation of new antibacterial and antimicrobial films to help curb the spread of germs, and also holds promise for new methods of seeking out and killing tumors in the human body.

Scientists have long been interested in wrapping proteins around carbon nanotubes, and the process is used for various applications in imaging, biosensing, and cellular delivery. But this new study at Rensselaer is the first to remotely control the activity of these conjugated nanotubes. Details of the project are outlined in the article "Nanotube-Assisted Protein Deactivation" in the December issue of Nature Nanotechnology.

A team of Rensselaer researchers led by Ravi S. Kane, professor of chemical and biological engineering, has worked for nearly a year to develop a means to remotely deactivate protein-wrapped carbon nanotubes by exposing them to invisible and near-infrared light. The group demonstrated this method by successfully deactivating anthrax toxin and other proteins.

"By attaching peptides to carbon nanotubes, we gave them the ability to selectively recognize a protein of interest-in this case anthrax toxin-from a mixture of different proteins," Kane said. "Then, by exposing the mixture to light, we could selectively deactivate this protein without disturbing the other proteins in the mixture."

By conjugating carbon nanotubes with different peptides, this process can be easily tailored to work on other harmful proteins, Kane said. Also, employing different wavelengths of light that can pass harmlessly through the human body, the remote control process will also be able to target and deactivate specific proteins or toxins in the human body. Shining light on the conjugated carbon nanotubes creates free radicals, called reactive oxygen species. It was the presence of radicals, Kane said, that deactivated the proteins.

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Rensselaer Student Start-Ups Win Top Prizes at National Innovation Showcase

November 27, 2007

TROY, N.Y.- Two Rensselaer student start-up companies took first and second place at this year's inaugural Innovation Showcase (I-Show) competition Nov. 9 in Seattle, Wash. Ecovative Design LLC and JDAxis Corporation, both companies that are focused on developing products to improve the environment and people's lives, won first and second place, receiving $5,000 and $3,000 respectively.

The competition was sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in collaboration with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) and Idea to Product (I2P) competitions.

The founders of Ecovative Design LLC have developed an environmentally friendly organic insulation called Greensulate. Created from waste agricultural materials, water, and mushrooms, the patent-pending insulation could replace conventional foam insulations, which are expensive to produce and harmful to the environment.

The founders of JDAxis Corporation are developing a device that could aid diabetic patients with early identification of foot disorders caused by the disease. STOMP (Scanning Thermal and Optical Measurement Platform) will scan visual and infrared images of the bottom of an individual's foot, obtain blood pressure and heart rate readings, and check skin surface temperature, swelling, increased hardness, and moisture content.

The I-Show is a competition that encourages collegiate student teams to display and present their technological innovations to an audience that includes successful entrepreneurs, seed venture capitalists, and intellectual property specialists. Judges decide the best and most feasible ideas, and winners will receive cash prizes and additional product and start-up support, according to ASME.

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RPI is "Paving the Way for Commercialization"

October 29, 2007

Featured in "Small Schools' Big Tech Dreams" in BusinessWeek on-line, Rensselaer is one of the smaller Universities that has successfully moved research into the commercial arena. According to Innovation Associates, a consulting firm in Virginia that prepared a study sponsored by the National Science Foundation, even with a limited R&D budget a school may leverage "a good combination of partnerships, incentives, and federal and local funding." Since 1999, RPI has hired 183 new faculty increasing and producing quality reseach.