NSC TECHNOLOGY
Grant: $149,993 - National Science Foundation - Jun. 8, 2009
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Award Description: This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project addresses the needs specified under the topic of 'Multi-Functional Materials (MM)' and the subtopic of 'Nanostructured Materials (NM)'. Two areas of rapidly-growing marketing opportunities, (1) the biomedical area where commercially available magnetic beads are limited by the micron-size character and the lack of control over surface reactivity for custom applications, and (2) the antibacterial area where the use of silver nanoparticles for killing bacteria has shown controversial or disappointing clinical results due to difficulty of removing the nanoparticles after the antimicrobial activities, constitute the motivation of the proposed research. NSC Technology proposes to address these challenging problems by manufacturing multifunctional magnetic core-shell nanoparticles. The Phase I goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of synthesizing core-shell nanoparticles consisting of magnetic nanoparticle cores and gold and/or silver shells (M@Au/Ag) as commercially-viable products as antibacterial agents and biomedical probes. Such nanocomposite materials will be engineered to display controllable surface reactivity (and biocompatibility) from the gold or silver shells, and magnetic separation capability from the magnetic cores. A key element of the proposed approach involves molecularly-engineered synthesis and processing that expands the technology on gold-coated magnetic nanoparticles recently developed by our State University of New York (SUNY) partner.
Project Description: This project focuses on the design and nano-engineering of magnetic core-shell nanoparticles as multifunctional and robust nanoprobes for bacterial inactivation. Two of the key objectives are: (1) Fabricate magnetic core-shell nanoparticles; and (2) Evaluate the multifunctional properties of the magnetic core-shell nanoparticles in bio applications. The major tasks include synthesis and characterization of the core-shell nanoparticles, and evaluation of the multifunctional properties of the magnetic core-shell nanoparticles in protein-labeling, binding, separation, and bacterial inactivation processes. A main deliverable is the demonstration of core-shell nanoparticles as commercially-viable, biocompatible, and magnetically-separable products for antibacterial agents or biomedical probes. The accomplishment of these objectives and tasks involves close collaboration between researchers at NSC Technology and researchers at SUNY. This is the first quarterly report for the period of 7/1/09 ? 9/31/09. In this period, we mainly focused detailed planning of the overall project and some specific areas related to the first objective and the first task. NSC has put the desired research personnel in place for work in this project. We have established bi-weekly meeting for discussions of the research results with SUNY partner. The work at NSC Technology included an initial assessment of the synthetic protocols in producing magnetic nanoparticle cores, and an initial testing of some as-synthesized samples. The results have been discussed in our bi-weekly meetings with researchers at SUNY. In parallel with these efforts, researchers at SUNY have been working on refining the synthesis methods and characterization protocols. The preliminary results have shown promising leads. Work on preparing and characterizing some magnetic core-shell nanoparticles with controlled magnetic properties and surface properties are underway by researchers at both NSC and SUNY.
Jobs Summary: Prime Recipient retained a Principal Investigator, a Chemical Engineer, and an Assistant. Sub Recipient retained a Co-Principal Investigator and Student Researchers. (Total jobs reported: 1)
Project Status: Less Than 50% Completed
This award's data was last updated on Jun. 8, 2009. Help expand these official descriptions using the wiki below.
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