Great Minds in Nanotech Thinking Alike on Arkansas Medical News Inc.

Great Minds in Nanotech Thinking Alike

By: STEVE BRAWNER

Alexandru Biris, PhD, chief scientist at the Nanotechnology Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, displays a tube of nanoparticles in one of the laboratories at UALR.

State's Researchers Hold First Meeting to Collaborate

Some of Arkansas' greatest minds are thinking about very small things, and now they are beginning to think about them together.

About 60 scientists, engineers and medical researchers, all working in nanotechnology as it relates to medical sciences, gathered for a Statewide Conference on Nanotechnology for Health Care at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain January 8-10.

One of the conference's organizers, Greg Salamo, PhD, a distinguished professor of physics at the University of Arkansas, said the conference was a first step in bringing together nanotechnologists from across the state to collaborate and become "a force that is greater than the sum of its parts."

"We try to look at it as a beginning," he said.

Salamo said that Arkansas is well-positioned in the field because it made early investments in nanotechnology in the mid-1990s, allowing it to attract talented professionals. Meanwhile, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' efforts to combine cancer treatment with cancer research, as well as investments made by several universities, have given the state nationally competitive programs that can reach even higher levels by collaborating together.

Salamo was one of about seven researchers who approached the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute for support, resulting in this and another conference next year. About half of the attendees gave presentations of their work.

According to Salamo, the conference accomplished its purpose. "It seemed to bring together a lot of researchers, many of whom shared an agreement that working together was an optimistic way of looking at the future," he said.

Organizers hope the two conferences will lead to a Gordon Research Conference, a prestigious national gathering of researchers who discuss a particular topic. Such a meeting has never occurred in Arkansas.

Meanwhile, nanotechnologists across the state are enjoying success in a variety of research efforts

Alexandru Biris, PhD, chief scientist at the Nanotechnology Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, is working on treatments that could revolutionize the way cancer is fought.

Working with Vladimir Zharov, PhD, DSc, and his team at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Biris has helped develop a strong chemical bond between nanomaterials and antibodies that carry them to tumors. The nanotubes are then heated with laser radiation, killing the cancer cells. The idea has shown much promise during in vitro studies. They also are researching a similar process using low-frequency radio waves and graphitic carbon-coated ferromagnetic cobalt nanoparticles bound to standard cancer-fighting drugs. That process killed cancer cells within a matter of minutes. "The beautiful thing about this, it's almost like creating a silver bullet that finds its own target," he said.

Biris is specializing in pancreatic cancer, which has a very low survival rate, as well as cancer of the liver and other organs. For him, the work is not just scientific – he has a cousin who is suffering from the disease. Cautiously optimistic, he said the treatment shows great promise, but much research still needs to be done, and researchers are nowhere near pronouncing that they have found a cure. "I wish I could say yes, but I think we are way far off," he said.

Meanwhile, Biris and his team are blurring the line between man and man-made. They are producing advanced biocompatible nanocomposite polymeric materials made of the same proteins involved in human organs. Focusing on bone so far in their research, they have created materials that, when implanted into an injury, attract bone-making cells that create new tissue. The nanomaterials are later absorbed into the bloodstream, leaving a new, fully-formed bone in their place. Working with Kansas State University, researchers have been able to grow bone tissue in 43 human pre-clinical cases, 36 goat models, and one horse with a broken leg. "We had no rejections, no failures, no inflammation, nothing," he said. "One hundred percent success rate."

Elsewhere, Vijay K. Varadan, a PhD with the University of Arkansas' High Density Electronics Center and Engineering Research Center, has been using nanoparticles to measure brain pressure to determine neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's. He and his staff also are producing batteries powered by the body's own glucose and protein. They also are creating a flexible plastic sensor that can be embedded in clothing or bedding so a patient can be medically monitored without being hooked to wires.

Ajay Malshe, PhD, a 21st century endowed chair professor of materials, manufacturing and integrated systems at the University of Arkansas and a cofounder of Nanotech, is helping create hydroxyapatite nanoparticle coatings for implants, including dental implants, that remain more uniform and nanostructured than current materials and bond better with tissues.

He also is in the early stage of researching, along with others, using human cells to create an artificial organ, perhaps by 2025. It seems the stuff of science fiction, but Malshe, who immigrated to the United States from India in 1992, compared the effort to the Apollo moon landing. "It is a grand vision, and as Americans, we have done this before," he said.