The Real Spin Zone

Two technologies that sit on the periphery of nanotech are dendrimer research and spintronics. And both have been in the tech news of late.

Michigan-based Dendritic Nanotechnologies (DNT, www.dnanotech.com) has been landing solid press regarding its partnership efforts, as well being awarded the “Advanced Medical Applications Technology Innovation of the Year” Award by Frost & Sullivan for its work in developing and commercializing the Priostar family of dendrimers.

Last October, I saw a presentation by DNT at Foresight Institute’s annual conference. I was impressed by the concept before seeing the presentation, and I was more impressed afterward.

There’s also an Australia-based firm, Starpharma (NSDQ: SPHRY, www.starpharma.com), that holds an interest in DNT. And chemical giant Dow (NYSE: DOW) has a piece of Starpharma. Dendrimers came out of Dow labs years ago, but it was the Aussies and the Michiganders at DNT who pushed the concept forward.

For all the work they’ve done up through now, the research is backing up their toil. Investigators at Wayne State University have found that by attaching the widely used cancer drug methotrexate to a dendrimer nanoparticle, they can overcome the resistance some cancer cells develop toward this drug. The researchers also found that this potentially beneficial effect isn’t seen with all dendrimer nanoparticles.

Without getting into too much detail, suffice it to say dendrimers proved to be an effective vehicle for chemotherapy delivery. That means far less toxic chemo treatments, healthier patients and more-effective drug delivery. That’s a good sign for dendrimer companies.

Spinning And Winning

Spintronics is starting to find its way out of the labs, ever so slowly. And with the guaranteed rise in spending on homeland security, defense and intelligence, there will be a steady stream of money for spintronics, electro-optic and quantum computing firms to haul back to their labs.

NVE Corp (NSDQ: NVEC, www.nve.com) is a leader in the practical commercialization of spintronics, a nanotechnology that many experts believe represents the next generation of microelectronics. NVE licenses its Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) intellectual property and sells spintronic sensors and couplers to revolutionize data sensing and transmission.

It’s been having good success landing patents and keeping the business coming, especially in the more elite aspects of the defense and intelligence communities.

The patent grant issued in May was NVE’s 38th US-issued patent. The company has more than 100 patents worldwide, either issued, pending or licensed. Links to the new patent, as well as NVE’s other US patents can be found at the “About NVE” section of the company’s Web site.

This is one of those “pure play” companies where it will either succeed and be bought out by a big computer/tech/defense firm or be stepped on–as this field develops and the money becomes bigger, so do the players. But it’s worth following, if only to gain insight into how this kind of game in undiscovered territories unfolds.

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