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Biofuels on the way
Biofuels look set to make greater inroads in the Irish market, as a result of a new bill presented to the Seanad last month.
With effect from July this year, the new legislation would place an obligation on fuel suppliers to ensure that biofuels comprise 4 per cent of their supplies, which would most likely be achieved through blending with conventional fossil fuels.
“This creates greater certainty and scale in the market,” says John Travers, head of Alternative Energy Resources (AER) – one of a number of Irish companies in this space, optimistic that the new regulations will create a more stable market for liquid biofuels.
AER was founded in 2006 by Travers, a former UCD engineer who has worked in management with international oil companies such as Shell. The company, which is based in NovaUCD, focuses on three main areas: production and supply of sustainable biofuels in the Irish market, next-generation biofuels research and development, and alternative energy strategies for international energy companies and government agencies. It was named the Deloitte national 'rising star' in recognition of its strong growth and dedication to technology development.
AER has signed an exclusive worldwide licence with the National University of Ireland in Galway for technology that converts algae to fuel. “We are continuing to test algae samples from multiple international locations and successfully convert them to sources of fuel,” Travers says. “Algae biofuel is a medium- to long-term development project. The key is to partner with international energy companies that also take the long-term view.”
He believes that Ireland’s focus in the biofuel area should be on the development of production technologies that can be licensed in world markets rather than on the mass production of the fuels themselves, given our limited land area and temperate climate. “The greatest possible opportunity for Irish companies is to focus on the development of sustainable biofuels that do not compete with food.” he argues. Some observers have raised questions about the sustainability of using valuable arable land for non-food crops while people starve in some parts of the world and food security is a potential future issue internationally.
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New water treatment research facility in Galway
Galway, a county that over recent years became synonymous with contaminated drinking water, boil notices and cryptosporidium, is now home to a new full-scale test-bed for novel waste water and water treatment technologies
Operating at a scale equivalent to a village with a population of 400, and using influent taken from Tuam town wastewater, the facility provides researchers and manufacturers opportunities to evaluate novel technologies under realistic conditions. Funding for NUI Galway green-technology research projects at the facility is currently being provided by Enterprise Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland and the EU. Among the collaborative research proposals the facility has received from organisations in Ireland and the US are smart water quality sensors, advanced equipment for removing viruses and phosphorus from water, and the use of efficient biological processes.
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Turn a new Leaf
Nissan has started taking reservations for its all-electric Leaf car in the United States Meanwhile, the Leaf is expected to launch in Europe in December 2010. The company hasn’t disclosed the price yet, but the Leaf is expected to cost around $30,000 in the US. Its driving range will be around 100 miles. One problem, however, is the battery. It is expensive to produce and there has been some debate over whether the price of the battery might be separated from the purchase price. But the company says the car will be available to consumers via lease or sale in a single transaction that includes the battery. Nissan describes the car as “the world’s first all-electric, zero-emission car designed for the mass market.”
The news comes as Senan McGrath, ESB’s head of sustainability for networks, has indicated that the first electric vehicle charge points are due to be rolled out at three locations in Dublin 2 over the coming weeks. In total, 1,500 charge points are due to be in place in urban areas and along major routes around Ireland by the end of 2011.
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Get ready to talk to your TV
A voice-enabled remote-control device for home entertainment systems is about to be launched on the US market by Amulet Devices.
Following the agreement with American electronics manufacturer SMK, Amulet voice-enabled remote controls will be on sale in the second quarter of this year to the installers of custom-built home-entertainment systems, and the company is hoping for a turnover in the region of €450,000 in its first year of trading.
Two-years ago, when Amulet exhibited a prototype of its remote-control device at the US Consumer Electronics Show (CES), it was named as an iStage award finalist, a competition designed to highlight ‘the most innovative consumer technology products that are soon come to market’.
Since then, the company has improved the device, with the second-generation remote-control now sporting a sleek, new contemporary design, improved voice-recognition capability and compatibility with Microsoft Windows 7. There is a patent pending on some of the technology used – the device is fitted with proximity-detection software, which aims to ensure that it only operates when commands are being given to it.
“There was a lot of interest in the product at this year’s CES in Las Vegas in January and earlier at the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) exhibition in Atlanta in September,” says MD Gary McMullen. “Giving the owners of in-house entertainment systems voice-enabled control over their systems is a major added value, but one which comes at little additional cost.”
In addition to being used for music and video on digital-media home-entertainment systems, the Amulet device also allows voice-activated remote control for ‘smart homes’, where there are electronic controls on lighting, heating, etc. Channel 5’s The Gadget Show recently ran a feature where presenter Ortis Deley, visiting a smart home in Dubai, used an Amulet remote-control to draw the curtains and run a bath.
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Irish tool helps global software developers access and search for code
A solution to an in-house problem looks set to increase revenues for Dublin-based software firm InnerWorkings, while at the same time making it easier for software developers search for code.
“Until now, we have been involved in providing learning solutions, for example, Inferent, our real time code-judging engine lets developers evaluate their performance, and it provides corrective feedback to advance their learning process,” said InnerWorkings CEO Fran McKeagney. “But CodeBox is a product that takes us in an interesting direction; it’s more of a productivity and a collaboration tool.
“We developed CodeBox to make some of our own coding solutions accessible to clients. They liked using the product and started asking if they could use it to search their own code repositories. Suddenly, we have a product for which there is a very real demand.
“Large, distributed software organisations today will have developers based across the globe, in the US, Europe, India, China or wherever, and it is extremely difficult for them to make all their software code accessible to all the different people working in different locations – it’s a bit like browsing the internet without the benefit of a search-engine like Google! You’re spending millions on having code written, but because you can’t search through your code-repository, you risk having work duplicated and having code rewritten.
“It’s very early days for CodeBox as a product, and we are working very closely with them on a road map for how it will be further developed. In early September, we launched version 1, we are now on version 2, with version 3 coming out in April. Already, it has a great deal of collaborative elements -- people can add comments, they can contact the people who originally developed a piece of code or who have used it in other applications, they can upload code samples and they can annotate the code.
“Thanks to CodeBox, this is a very interesting time for our company. Because it is technology independent, it can be used to search and browse all kinds of code repositories – Microsoft, Java, Ruby on Rails or whatever. CodeBox more than doubles our addressable audience; our main task now is to build market traction,” McKeagney says.
When InnerWorkings was founded in 2003, it simultaneously opened offices in the US, where it is headquartered, and Ireland, where its R&D department is based. It currently employs 16 people, ten in Ireland and six in the U.S.
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Project lights the way for cloud computing on future telecoms networks
Irish telecommunications innovator Intune Networks is part of a consortium of companies and universities awarded a major R&D contract under the EU Seventh Framework. Charged with designing a programmable network to demonstrate a practical way to implement cloud computing in future telecoms networks, the consortium also includes the Spanish and Cypriot telcos Telefónica and PrimeTel, the Italian software firm Nextworks and the University of Essex and University Autonoma Madrid.
Cloud computing, or the virtualisation of the standard PC, so that all a user’s data and computing power sits inside a network, is a development that promises to dramatically reduce the energy consumption of users and operators.
Known as ‘MAINS’ (metro architectures enabling sub-wavelengths), the project is part of a larger EU effort to research and develop ‘the Network of the Future’.
Intune Networks won its place in the consortium as a result of its work developing optical packet switching technology. A beta-version of the solution, which combines ethernet switching and optical transport, has been trialled by three major European telcos and a carrier class product is due to be launched on the global market later this year.
“It is a great market to be in,” said Intune Networks CEO Tim Fritzley. “Globally, it is estimated that the telcos currently spend $16 billion on ethernet switching and optical switching every year and that market is experiencing double-digit percentage growth year on year.
“Our involvement in MAINS is a major vote of confidence in Intune’s technology to be part of such a high-profile EU research grant. This places Intune Networks at the cutting edge of future telecoms network development in Europe.
“Intune has solved the telcos’ problem of how to evolve telecoms network architectures to cope with the massive increase in traffic demand while sustaining profitability and controlling costs. We have packaged this breakthrough technology into a carrier-grade networking system with a modern software interface, which we will use to work with the consortium as a critical element in developing the Network of the Future.”
Intune Networks employs 120 people in Dublin and Belfast. Founded in 1999, so far it has raised €35m in equity in two funding rounds. After launching its product on the market this year, Fritzley predicts the company will have a positive cash flow by 2012.
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Galway company mixes it up and keeps it real with audio software app
Touch Mix, a music-mixing application developed by a Tuam-based company for the iPhone, was named as ‘an Apple top-ten staff favourite’ on the iTunes website in January.
The Touch Mix application is the second of two audio software products produced by Future Audio Workshop (FAW), according to the company founder and CEO Gavin Burke, a digital signal processing engineer, who says: “Most people in my profession would be working in the telecommunications industry, but I decided to apply my knowledge to the music industry.”
The other FAW product is Circle, an audio synthesiser software solution for professional musicians, recording engineers and DJs, which has been on the market for 18 months. Like Touch Mix, Circle is available to download online but it is also sold in a boxed-version in specialist music stores in the UK, France, Germany and Japan.
Touch Mix is much more of a mass-market product than Circle, says Burke. “It will cost you about €3 for a Touch Mix download, whereas Circle retails at €149. Touch Mix is sold with pre-loaded branded content, with the branding provided by an artist or by a record company.”
So far, the biggest selling edition of Touch Mix has featured music by the award-winning musician Deadmau5. “His involvement has been great for us,” said Burke. “He really likes the way TouchMix is interactive and allows his fans to re-mix his music and to play it in different ways. There are about 145,000 music apps currently available for download on iTunes, and we are currently ranked at 402 internationally, the Touch Mix Deadmau5 edition got us to a highest ranking of 109 – just outside the top one-hundred! Our latest edition is with the German record label Cocoon, and we are always looking for artists and record labels to partner with us – for the artists.
“We are also looking to develop a version of Touch Mix for the iPad: the touch-screen is perfect for our types of music solution. The iPad version would allow users to mix their own music content and then post their mix on Facebook and other social networking sites. We can do that quite quickly, but we are looking for an angel investor to help us.”
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Opsona amongst recipients of Michael J. Fox Grants
Opsona Therapeutics, a Dublin drug development company specialising in the human immune system, is one of six companies that will split $2.1 million in new grants from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. The foundation's Therapeutics Development Initiative, which provided the funding, aims to drive pre-clinical projects pushing forward investigations of promising neuroprotective therapeutic targets for Parkinson's.
Parkinson’s is associated with an inflammatory response, which, in the brain, is mainly mediated by cells called microglia. Inflammation is normally beneficial in helping fight infections, but excessive inflammation can cause damage to nerves by releasing toxic factors. TLR-2 receptors are one of the receptors responsible for the activation of microglia, and levels of TLR-2 are increased in Parkinson’s. Hence, they represent an excellent drug target to inhibit inflammation and prevent further cell loss, according to Opsona.
The Dublin company has developed an antibody that will block the TLR-2 receptor for the potential treatment of diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, but it could also treat Parkinson’s. In a proof-of-concept study, Opsona will test neuroprotective effects of the antibody in two animal models of Parkinson’s, exploring whether the TLR-2 receptor antibody prevents the development of Parkinson-like behaviour in the models and whether it prevents the neurons from dying.
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Irish company helps develop faster 'flu' diagnosis
What is the best way to fight influenza? Quickly, say health experts. Now Biosensia, an Irish point-of-care in-vitro diagnostics company, is participating in an EU-funded project, which targets the development and validation of a rapid diagnostic test for influenza. The PORTFASTFLU ('Portable automated test for fast detection and surveillance of influenza') project is supported under the health theme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to the tune of €3 million.
The test, based on nucleic acid analysis, will enable healthcare professionals to conduct rapid automated detection and subtyping of influenza viruses in both clinical and field samples. What makes the system work is the identification of the influenza virus genes of the patient.
The project partners say they quickly demonstrated that PORTFASTFLU-designed primers and probes with the capacity to amplify and detect H1N1 viruses allowed detection and subtyping of the new swine-derived H1N1v virus. They also developed primers and probes that facilitate discrimination between seasonal and pandemic H1N1 virus isolates.
Launched in 2008 and due to be completed in December 2010, PORTFASTFLU brings together researchers and industry from Belgium, Ireland, Spain, France and the UK. The partners say they will finalise the integration of the different building blocks in a fully automatic integrated machine and will validate the influenza diagnostics performance in human and animal samples by year-end.
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FDA guidance to help streamline medical device clinical trials
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued guidance on statistical methods in the design and analysis of medical device clinical trials that could result in less costly and more efficient patient studies.
The Bayesian statistical method applies an algorithm that makes it possible for companies to combine data collected in previous studies with data collected in a current trial. The combined data may provide sufficient justification for smaller or shorter clinical studies, the FDA says. See: http://tinyurl.com/ygqdvyh
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Cork Cancer Research centre to collaborate with Cornell Medical College
The Cork Cancer Research Centre is exploring a collaboration with Weill Cornell Medical College – one of the United States’ leading medical colleges. Components of this collaboration will include a medical research fellowship where Irish students will do part of their research in Weill Cornell. Physician exchange between the groups is also anticipated.
The cancer research centre at UCC is a multidisciplinary organisation involving practising clinicians and specialist researchers that investigates major issues concerning the genesis, progression or treatment of cancer. Over the last ten years, it has filed 13 patents, ranging from innovative medical devices to bacterial delivery systems for gene therapies. It recently made headline news for its research on a DNA vaccine that destroys prostate cancer.
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Irish Stem Cell Foundation launches charter and calls for legislation
A new group, the Irish Stem Cell Foundation, launched a charter in Dublin this January, encouraging Irish clinicians, medical researchers, patient advocates and the public to join forces to make Ireland a better place for stem cell treatments, research and education. At the launch, Dr Stephen Sullivan, a research fellow at Trinity College Dublin, called for appropriate legislation to govern the development of stem cell research in Ireland. “Stem cells are the cornerstone of modern medical research and an essential part of seeking both the cures and high-end medical research jobs of the future,” he said. See www.irishstemcellfoundation.org
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Irish company partners to develop better diagnois for coeliac disease
Irish company Valentia Technologies is partnering in a European consortium involved in developing CD-MEDICS, a finger-prick device for remote coeliac disease diagnosis.
The project, which is being funded to the tune of €9.5m, under the European Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), uses CD-MEDICS as a rough acronym for Coeliac Disease Management, Monitoring and Diagnosis, using Biosensors and an Integrated Chip System.
Coeliac disease affects one in 100 genetically predisposed individuals, who develop a small intestinal inflammation on exposure to dietary gluten. The only treatment is the lifelong avoidance of gluten. Due to the wide variety of symptoms, the average delay from onset of symptoms to diagnosis is 11.7 years, during which time not only do coeliac disease patients suffer from a reduced quality of life, they are also unnecessarily hospitalised and quite often completely misdiagnosed, and treated with costly drugs.
The aim of the CD-MEDICS project is to develop a point-of-care, low-cost, disposable, intelligent, non-invasive diagnosis microfluidic cartridge that will contain assays, reagents and sensors for primary diagnosis, and subsequent monitoring, of the disease.
As one of the project’s communication partners, Valentia Tech is involved in developing web-services that will provide communications between CD-MEDICS point-of-care devices and hospital information systems.
Already, Valentia Technology has pioneered a number of healthcare informatics solutions, ranging from remote patient monitoring devices for the management of chronic disease to systems that allow ambulances to forward casualty information to A&E departments before the patient is physically admitted to a hospital.
There are 20 partners from various disciplines involved in the project, which has another two years to run. In addition to Valentia Technology, the other partners are from Spain, Germany, UK, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia and Belgium.
Valentia Tech will be leading the first trial of a prototype device in a clinical setting, at the University Medical Centre in Maribor, Slovenia.
Another Irish connection with the project is that the overall coordinator: UCC graduate Dr Ciara O’Sullivan, who is now the Primary Research Professor of the Nanobiotechnology and Bioanalysis Group in Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain.
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New Clinical Research Facility for Galway
Some €7.5m in capital funding is to be provided for the construction of a new Clinical Research Facility on the grounds of University Hospital Galway. The centre will include facilities for patient-based research and for the processing and analysis of bio-specimens, allowing clinicians, the healthcare industry and other key partners to test innovative therapies, technologies and products.
The CRF will be built along with translational research laboratories funded by NUI Galway in a new, 5000m² building on the campus of University Hospital Galway. Planning permission has already been granted and construction is due to commence shortly.
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Launch of Ion channel Biotechnology Centre in Dundalk
The Ion Channel Biotechnology Centre, an Enterprise Ireland-funded research centre at Dundalk Institute of Technology, is working with the pharmaceutical industry to develop new drugs tackling conditions such as osteoarthritis and urinary incontinence with reduced side-effects.
Regulating routine bodily functions, ion channels are effectively 'transport tunnels' found in every cell of the human body, making them critical to drug development and the assessment of drug side effects.
Officially opened in January, the centre has already secured some €7.5m in funding from Ireland, the UK, Europe and the National Institutes of Health – the United States Government's medical research agency. In addition, two patent applications for novel chemical drug candidates are to be submitted in the first quarter of this year. See www.icbc.ie
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Competition seeks proposals to create jobs and prosperity
‘Your Country, Your Call’, a competition launched by President Mary McAlese, aims to ignite imaginations and inspire thinking. Two winners will each receive €100,000 support and €500,000 to develop their ideas. The goal is to pick two truly transformational proposals so big that, when implemented, could secure prosperity and jobs for Ireland. The aim, organisers say, is not about creating new products; rather it is about creating something that will make a long-term, positive impact on the future of Ireland its people, and its economy.
Entries should be submitted online at www.yourcountryyourcall.com by 30 April, 2010.
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The 2010 Finance Bill:
IP, R7D, start-ups and energy efficiency
The 2010 Finance Bill contained a number of measures relevant to the tax treatment of IP and R&D, energy efficiency equipment and start-ups.
For example, in the area of capital allowances for intellectual property, William Fry tax advisors point out that the definition of intangible assets has been extended to include computer software. Separately, unilateral tax credit relief is now available to all trading companies where royalties are received from countries with which Ireland has not concluded a double tax treaty.
In the area of energy efficient equipment, the categories of equipment that now qualify for accelerated tax depreciation have been extended to include refrigeration and cooling systems; electro-mechanical systems, and catering and hospitality equipment.
For start-ups, the three-year exemption from corporation tax for companies commencing business in Ireland in 2009 has been extended to include new start-up companies in 2010, where their tax liability does not exceed €40,000 in each year.
There have also been some minor tweaks to the R&D Tax Credit. For example, the regime has been amended to cover situations where a company carries out R&D activities in different facilities in separate geographical locations and the activities in one of these facilities is permanently discontinued. In addition, the Finance Bill introduces a concession for the calculation of the base year in the situation where a company closes down, or ceases to carry on a trade in one of its ‘R&D Centres’.
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Got a business problem or opportunity you'd like to explore?
The closing date for the next Innovation Voucher call is 30 April.
Do you own or manage a small business and have a business opportunity or problem that you’d like to explore? If so, Enterprise Ireland is accepting applications this April for €5,000 Innovation Vouchers that can be used to fund research and consultancy work with over 40 knowledge providers around the country, including Northern Ireland. Alternatively, groups of up to 10 companies can pool vouchers, totalling up to €50,000, to fund research on a shared problem. The programme is open to all small companies (with fewer than 50 employees), not just Enterprise Ireland clients.
The Innovation Voucher programme was first launched in 2007, on recommendation from the Small Firms Forum, based on Dutch success with a similar scheme. One of the benefits in Holland, where up to 80 per cent of voucher recipients had never formally engaged with a research provider before, was that it provided the initial stimulus for businesses to look at innovation, which in turn lead to confidence to further explore product and process development.
Programme co-ordinator Pat O’Brien says that although the Irish scheme will not be externally evaluated until later this year, anecdotal evidence suggests a similar impact here. Many companies have returned for a second voucher, and some projects have even lead on to Innovation Partnerships, which typically involve research investments in the €100,000s range.
“Round-by-round, we approve about 70 per cent of applications,” O’Brien says. “The company provides a [written] description of their problem, and if their application is approved, we give them a voucher, which they can use to shop around for the research provider that will give them the best value and where they find the best rapport.”
The next Innovation Voucher call for single companies and pooled applications opens on 1 April and closes on 30 April, with a second call in October 2010. Both calls are open only to companies that have used fewer than two Innovation Vouchers. But Enterprise Ireland is also operating a Co-Funded Fast-Track Innovation Voucher scheme for businesses that have already used two vouchers or who need to get work done fast. This scheme allows for up to €10,000 worth of work to be carried out, with €5,000 coming from the voucher and the other €5,000 coming in cash from the company. Fast-track applicants must identify their research provider in advance, so the project is ready-to-go immediately. Throughout the year, ten fast-track Innovation Vouchers will be available per week, and the expected turnaround time on applications is from seven to ten days.
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Prepare to take your slice of Europe's 3.2 billion recovery plan R&D funding:
Two dates for your diary in 2010
As part of the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP), funding of €3.2bn (2010-2013) is being made available to help the industries hardest hit by the recession: the manufacturing, construction and automotive sectors.
The funding is being made available as part of a new Framework 7 (FP7) Private Public Partnerships (PPP) call, focused on Energy Efficient Buildings, Factories of the Future and Green Cars. The calls for proposals for this year will be launched on the 30 July, with a deadline sometime at the end of November.
Two major networking events over the coming months provide interested companies with a platform to meet partners; explore potential collaborations and link with suppliers, policy makers and large-scale industry.
The first event, on 13-14 April, in Valencia, Spain, is being organised under the auspices of the Spanish EU Presidency and will provide companies an open environment for discussions with industry leaders, researchers and the European Community. This is a valuable event for companies interested in participating in PPP projects to attend, as consortiums for R&D projects will begin forming here.
A second event, close to the call launch, on 9 July in Brussels, is aimed at assisting in proposal preparation. This joint-information day on research PPPs is being coordinated by the Directorates General for Research and Innovation, and Energy and Transport.
A small number of Irish companies took part in the 2009 PP call, and the results are expected to be made public within weeks. Overall, the success rate for proposals under the Factory of the Future initiative was about 30 per cent – with 36 per cent of the overall funding going to SMEs, and the majority of participants coming from Germany, France and Italy. The Energy Efficiency in Buildings proposal success rate was about one in three, with SMEs taking just under 25 per cent of the funding, and the majority of participants coming from Germany, Spain and Italy. The success rates for the Green Car initiative were slightly lower.
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Open call for European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research
The European Commission has issued an open call for European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST). The objective of COST is to stimulate new, innovative, interdisciplinary and broad research networks in Europe. COST does not fund research itself, but supports networking activities.
COST is seeking proposals for activities contributing to the scientific, technological, economic, cultural or societal development of Europe. Proposals playing a precursor role for other European programmes and/or initiated by early-stage researchers are especially welcome. The deadline for full proposals is 14 May, 2010. See www.cost.esf.org
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New thinking about cancer origins
Whilst we may think of blood, breast and liver cancers as separate cancers, genetics is showing us that place matters less than we thought. Genetic abnormalities in cancer cells are not unique to a form of cancer; instead, they are shared across cancers. Scientists, who published a genome-scale map of twenty-six different cancers in Nature, said they were surprised by “the degree to which so many alterations are shared.” And thinking about cancers as “to the manor born” may stymie the search for treatments because it fails to highlight cancer’s molecular roots. It is these roots that could be harnessed in the lab to discover new, more effective cancer therapies and in the clinic to improve diagnosis and treatment. As part of their study, the scientists had gathered over 2,500 cancer specimens, taken from more than two dozen cancer types, including lung, prostate, breast, ovarian, colon and brain cancers. They focused on genetic mishaps, whereby segments of a tumour’s genome are present in abnormal quantities, with either too many or too few.
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Orange to go
Cars run on orange have moved closer to reality. Inadequate technology had put the break on biofuel production from complex plant materials. Their polymers could not be efficiently and economically broken down into the required sugars. Now, researchers in Florida say they have mixed up a cocktail of natural enzymes that can break down orange peels and other waste materials into sugar, which can then be fermented to ethanol. The enzymes originated from microbes. The scientists cloned genes from the fungi or bacteria and transferred their enzyme-producing abilities to tobacco plants. Producing the enzymes in plants instead of manufacturing synthetic versions will reduce the cost of production, say the scientists. The results, reported in the Plant Biotechnology Journal, will be welcome news in Florida: the Sunshine State discards enough orange peels to create about 200 million gallons of ethanol every year, say the scientists.
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Snail power = extreme power
Consider the life of the scaly-footed gastropod discovered in a hydrothermal vent in the Indian Ocean. It lives through extreme temperatures, high pressures and high acidity, yet it survives intact. And it is hunted by crabs that set out to crush it between powerful claws. MIT scientists have now unlocked the mysteries of this born survivor using nanoscale experiments and computer simulations. The shell is structured unlike any known natural armour, the scientists reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The shell features an inner layer of aragonite – a common shell material – sheathed in a layer of squishy organic materials. This organic layer is encased in a thin, stiff outer layer made of hard iron sulphide-based scales. Each layer plays a role in thwarting crab attacks, with the outer layer cracking slightly under pressure and dissipating energy and the soft layer also taking a hit. The scientists say their armoured snail could help improve materials for armour or helmets. Organisms optimised for extreme environments through millions of years of evolution can offer ideas that engineers would never think of, said the lead scientist.
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Not cricket? hen don't eat it
“I don’t like cricket, I love it” could be the new food slogan. In a special issue on food security, a senior expert at the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) told Science that we cannot ignore the efficiency of insects as protein producers. The FAO is to develop new policy guidelines that will encourage countries to include insects in their food-security plans. Experts say 100 grams of caterpillars can provide all of an adult’s recommended daily protein, along with iron, B vitamins and other essential nutrients. The FAO is looking into experimental insect breeding to see whether it can be both ecologically and economically sustainable. Bear in mind that a cow must eat about 8 grams of food to gain a gram in weight, whereas insects need less than two. And researchers are studying whether they could use insect protein in livestock feed or even as a food additive. Science noted that Dutch company, Bugs Organic Food, markets mealworms and grasshoppers through two dozen outlets.
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Toxic makeup
Queen Nefertiti and her fellow ancient Egyptians who wore eye makeup believed they were applying magic. When the Nile flooded, Egyptians were hit with infections due to particles that entered the eye, so a bit of eye magic would have been helpful. In fact, a report in Analytical Chemistry shows that the black eye liner had antibacterial properties and probably did ward off eye infections. The downside, though, was that it was composed of four lead-based chemicals. The scientists said they would not recommend its use today, as the toxicity of the compounds surpassed any health benefits. However, efforts are underway to use nanotechnology to join cosmetics and pharmaceuticals to form ‘cosmeceuticals’.
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Just add wastewater
Microalgae, alone, might not be all they are cracked up to be when it comes to producing environmentally friendly renewable fuels. The single-celled organisms have garnered much hype as a cost-effective crop for producing renewable fuels. But when scientists in the US assessed the energy costs and environmental impacts of algae compared to other biofuel crops, many conventional crops had lower environmental impacts than algae in terms of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and water – regardless of location. The full analysis, reported in Environmental Science & Technology, suggested algae farms would need to reduce the use of fertiliser and freshwater to compete. However, the scientists then showed how wastewater effluents, when used as a source of nitrogen and phosphorus, could significantly reduce the burden from algae and that the use of source-separated urine could make algae more environmentally friendly than the terrestrial crops.
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Largest moon on Earth
Visitors to Dusseldorf, Germany, this year are advised to keep going and visit the Moon. The “largest Moon on Earth” is a 25-metre replica that floats inside the Oberhausen Gasometer. In almost complete darkness, visitors can observe the Moon in all its phases in a 5-minute show. The model moon is shown in elaborate detail, alongside other stars and planets in the 100-metre-high tank. This had been built to store the gas produced by the Ruhr Valley’s iron and coke processing plants. The sculpture was created by photographer Wolfgang Volz, and its surface design relied on image data from the US Clementine mission, which took 1.8 million photographs. The exhibition will run to the end of the year.
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Patented TCD technology could help squeeze drugs through the barriers
Our bodies protect our brains and eyes from harmful agents in the blood by creating a barrier around blood vessels - it excludes unwanted pathogens or potentially damaging molecules from crossing over. But the system works so well that it can also prevent useful therapeutic drugs moving from the bloodstream to disease sites in the central nervous system.
Now a group at Trinity College Dublin has developed an approach to subtly manipulate the body’s natural barriers to the brain and eye by opening tiny pores to allow small molecules to move through.
The blood-brain and inner blood-retina barriers are formed by sealing blood vessels between endothelial cells, explains Dr Matthew Campbell, a post-doc in Professor Pete Humphries’ lab at Trinity’s genetics department.
“The seal is called a tight junction, where integral membrane proteins form a really tight seal, and antibodies, bacteria, toxins can’t pass through from the blood into the brain tissue or retina,” he explains.
To manipulate those seals, the group has developed RNA molecules that suppress one of the tight junction proteins, claudin-5. The result?
“When you down-regulate it, you end up with sub-microscopic pores where small molecules could passively diffuse through,” says Dr Campbell.
In a proof-of-principle experiment, the group used a mouse model that cannot produce GTP, a molecule that drives the function of light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye.
“A very simple therapeutic is to simply inject GTP back into the animal but the problem is that GTP doesn’t simply diffuse through the barrier,” says Dr Campbell.
So to prime the eye, they injected a virus carrying anti-claudin RNA directly into the retina of the GTP-deficient mouse. Then they activated the virus using a systemic inducer – this suppressed claudin-5 in the retina and GTP was able to cross from the bloodstream into the eye, restoring vision, he explains.
The same principle could be applied to the blood-brain barrier, and the researchers have looked at directly introducing claudin-blocking RNA into a model of the brain cancer glioblastoma, where tweaking the barrier could eventually help deliver chemotherapy drugs more effectively.
Theirs is the first approach they know of that targets tight junctions in the barriers, explains Prof Humphries. “It only opens up the tight junctions to molecules of about 1,000 Daltons, so they are very small,” he says. “And the system we are developing is very selective; we can put it wherever we want.”
His group is now looking to carry out further trials using the patented technology, which could have potential applications in treating retinopathies, macular degeneration, brain degenerative diseases and swelling, and they have held discussions with the European Medicines Agency.
For further information, contact Emily Verekee, email verekee@tcd.ie
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Smart drug delivery materials from RCSI now entering preclinical trials
Getting drugs to their site of action can be a circuitous affair, with medications often being released in the body before they are needed. It can mean having to use relatively high doses to get the desired effect, and the potential for side-effects is increased.
But delivery platforms that encapsulate drugs within particles of ‘smart’materials that release their payload at the disease site could offer a way to reduce both dosage and cost.
It’s an approach being explored at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, explains Dr Sally-Ann Cryan, a senior lecturer in pharmaceutics at the school of pharmacy.
Her group is developing drug-delivery platforms that coat biodegradable polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymers with specific peptides to target them to disease sites. Once there, the particles break down and release the drug cargo within.
The initial idea came from tissue engineering, which was using non-toxic materials that can be safely excreted from the body, says Dr Cryan. “They were looking at bioresponsive scaffold in regenerative medicine. In terms of technology and the materials we use, there’s a big overlap. You want them to be biocompatible and break down in the body, where you want them to break down. We looked at the materials they used and applied it in a drug delivery context.”
Her group, which receives funding from Science Foundation Ireland, has initially set its sights on drug delivery in inflammation and cancer, where research has characterised disease sites relatively well and there are opportunities to innovate in drug delivery.
“In inflammation, the only targeting system that had been explored to any great extent was using antibodies to target an inflammatory site,” says Dr Cryan.
“We thought a more versatile way to do that was come up with small micro- and nanoparticles based on polymers that are degraded at the disease site.”
Their approach singles out something that differentiates the disease from the rest of the body then engineers the drug-delivery platform to release the drug to where it is needed. For example, coating the polymer backbone with a peptide that recognises a specific enzyme can provide the key to unlock the drug.
“If a particular enzyme is upregulated, then I can develop a drug platform to deliver there,” says Cryan. “We can tailor the technology to whatever enzyme you like.”
The particles can also be tailored in size to suit the route of administration, she adds – smaller particles may suit parenteral administration while larger ones are needed for inhalation.
So far, the group has developed particles suitable for inhalation that target the enzyme elastase in sites of inflammation of the lungs, and Dr Cryan points out that such versatile bioresponsive drug-delivery platforms could be adapted for other routes of administration. And with the smart biomaterials entering preclinical trials, the group is now looking for co-developers or licensees, she adds.
For further information contact, Dr Aoife Gallagher, Technology Transfer Manager, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Tel +353 1 402 2394, Email aoifegallagher1@rcsi.ie
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DIT spin-out to launch in the document security space
Technology developed at Dublin Institute of Technology stands to offer cheaper, more convenient and faster approaches for generating optical components and secure holograms.
Making an optical lens the conventional way can be a complex, expensive and limited process, but the new technology moves it to a desktop, explains Brendan Ring, commercialisation manager at DIT’s Hothouse.
“Previously, if you wanted to make an optical device like a lens or different optical components, you would have to make them from a metal mould. To do that you are limited by the machining capabilities or else you have to use very expensive laser-cutting equipment,” he says. “With our product, all you have to do is use a printer - and you can print any design you want.”
To make an optical component, the user designs it on a computer then prints it with a sensitising dye onto a light-sensitive polymer. Next, the design is realised by exposing the primed polymer to a laser.
“It means you can [make optical components] at a fraction of the cost of other methods,” says Ring, adding that the approach also allows more versatility in design. “It is only possible to cheaply cut circles with the standard approach, but we can cut other shapes like ellipses.”
A similar photolithography technique can be used to design and print a high-security “volume” hologram, adds Ring. The three-dimensional nature of the hologram means it cannot be counterfeited by taking a surface impression, and because the polymer is sensitive to humidity, the resulting holograms can also be easily authenticated - they change colour if you blow on them or wipe them with a damp cloth.
“At the moment, individual holograms can be made – you send the photo and passport to a vibration-isolated factory, which is a very expensive elaborate building,” he explains. “But with our method you can do it on a desktop in a standard office environment.”
Holograms of photographs are already in use on German passports, and the DIT technology has good feedback from companies involved in document security, according to Ring.
A spin-out company is to be set up to commercialise the photolithography technique by offering a one-stop service for designing and making optical components and supplying equipment and consumables to companies working in document security, he explains. “All this technology can be done, but we are making it much more user-friendly and more cost-effective,” Ring says.
For further information, contact Brendan Ring, Commercialisation Manager, DIT Hothouse, Tel +353 (0)1 402 3111, Email brendan.ring@hothouse.ie
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