About Nanotech
What is the history of the company?
We commenced operations in the United Kingdom in 2003. The founders of the Company have previously worked with businesses that share a similar business model to ours. The Company is a Wyoming company and our full name is: Nanotech Industries, Inc.
How is the company structured?
We only focus on nanotechnology. Our mission is to rapidly build businesses that transform academic nanotechnology platforms into nano-enabled material, electronics and biopharma products. We are looking for early-stage opportunities which will, within three years, deliver proof-of-concept devices or demonstrate manufacturability. There are many ways to group our nanotechnologies, including by application theme, University partner or time to commercialization. However, generally we group our nanotechnologies into three broad domain-specific groups: electronics, biopharma and materials. Each of these vertical groups is headed by Senior Vice-President with scientific and industry expertise. Across the company as a whole we provide a ‘tool-box’ to ensure the technologies into which we invest reach maximum market potential. This tool-box includes financing and support services, such as commercialization guidance, project and infrastructure management, leadership assets, and counsel on intellectual property, licensing and regulatory issues.
How many subsidiaries do you have?
We are currently developing over 20 nanotechnologies. Over 50 scientists are developing technologies for Nanotech Industries throughout the World.
Which nanotechnology areas do you focus on?
We focus on three broad areas of nanotechnology. Within each of our three groups, electronics, biopharma and materials, we have particular interests.
In electronics our areas of interest include: miniaturization of current technologies, improved fabrication techniques, alternative material exploration, lithographic techniques, computer chips, data storage, optoelectronics, sensors, display technologies, photovolactics, and light-emission and light-transmission structures.
In biopharma our areas of interest include: drug delivery technologies, protein engineering, biosensors, ‘lab-on-a-chip’ technologies, medical imaging, implants and prosthetics, array technologies, self-assembly, drug discovery, photodynamic therapy, molecular motors, neuro-electronic interfaces and nanoluminescent tags.
In materials our areas of interest include: carbon nanotubes, inorganic nanotubes, nanowires, nanoparticles, fullerenes, dendrimers, quantum dots, renewable nanocomposites, coatings and surfaces, fuel cells, lubricants and purification and separation technologies.
Why are you focused on such diverse themes?
The science underpinning nanotechnology has been the subject of research, within academia especially, for over forty years. The commercial challenge has been to utilize this investment to produce practical products that fulfil real industry and consumer needs. We believe that the capabilities and infrastructure are now in place to evolve this scientific investment into products. Nevertheless, nanotechnology, as a catalyst for industrial change is still nascent, competitive and expensive. We believe that these characteristics create risks for investors. Our group of nanotechnologies provide the diversity that we feel is necessary to mitigate investor risk, whilst operating within a managed, low-cost environment that we are uniquely, operating with our academic partners, able to provide.
Where do you operate?
We maintain our head-quarters in New York and have offices in London and representation in Singapore and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Our partners are developing technologies in the United Kingdom and Singapore. We are in negotiations to develop technologies in the U.S., continental Europe and Asia. We are interested in assessing technologies throughout the world and have no geographical area of preference.
Business Model
Why do you work with academia?
As with all early-stage science, academia can usually be found at the forefront. The academic scientific community has been working on the science underpinning nanotechnology for over forty years. As a result, many of the discoveries that were necessary to prove out scientific theory were made in academic labs by University researchers. From this investment a large amount of intellectual capital has been generated, within an infrastructure rich environment of expensive, capital equipment and cross-disciplinary human resources; physicists, biologists and engineers for example. We believe that the low-risk commercialization of that scientific investment will lead to new nanotechnology enabled products.
Is academia able to turn science into practical technologies for real applications?
The academic community is changing all the time. Increasingly we see cross-disciplinary institutes being formed that cut across traditional scientific disciplines. The scientific driver behind this is typically that the old way of distinguishing academic disciplines, physics from chemistry for example, no longer fits the increasingly integrated nature of academic research – nanotechnology is just one such example of this new convergence in practice. The commercial reason behind this change is that academia is re-evaluating its position in the ‘supply-chain’ of new technologies. Academia is investing large sums of money in state of the art facilities. Having invested large amounts of resources in understanding the science behind nanotechnology, academia is increasingly interested in generating value from its commercialization. For example, the Institute for Biomedical Engineering (Imperial College, London) has a set of commercial criteria by which new projects are assessed before they are accepted for continued development. In addition this facility draws on a network of commercial partners which it uses to direct its efforts to introduce, not science, but technologies with real commercial value and purpose. The same is true across the world. We can draw on the existing strengths of Universities, namely scale, infrastructure, personnel, support services, and this new cultural change in approach to develop real technologies that will impact the lives of people throughout the world.
How do you monitor the development of the technologies while they are in the academic environment?
In addition to positioning Nanotech Industries personnel on-site with an academic partner to assist and mentor the maturation of nanotechnologies, we employ a web-based project management infrastructure. This allows us to, in an unobtrusive manner; validate progress, the creation and capture of intellectual property and the adherence to developmental milestones. In addition, we organize seminars and group review sessions in which we are able to share ideas and innovations.
What is nanotech?
What is nanotechnology?
Not limited to any one discipline of science, nanotechnology is simply defined as the design, characterization, production and application of structures, devices, and systems measuring between 1 and 100 nanometers. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, approximately 80,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. At the nanoscale, the ratio between surface area and volume rises, causing materials to defy their conventional properties, instead exhibiting unique and often unparalleled characteristics.
Why is it important?
Nanotechnology is reshaping our approach to science and industry and will become increasingly important to business in the creation of new products and more efficient manufacturing methods. Existing technologies, scales of size of orders larger than nanotechnology, are rapidly approaching technological ‘ceiling’, which will prevent future increases in performance. With the unrelenting demands of business and consumers, these technologies will soon be incapable of meeting industry needs. Nanotechnology offers potential solutions to break through this ‘ceiling’ and provide the capability to continue developing products to meet, and exceed, consumer and industrial expectations. At the very least, nanotechnology will touch the face of some industries. More likely, as the National Science Foundation predicts, its affects will be profound, long-lasting and act as a catalyst, much like the combustion engine or personal computer, for whole-sale industrial change.
How will it affect my daily life?
More than likely nanotechnology is already impacting your daily life. Nanotechnology enabled applications include improved golf balls, stain and crease resistant fabrics and films for sun screens. It is likely that you will have used such products, perhaps without knowing that nanotechnology is making the improved benefits of these products possible. We believe that soon we will see nanotechnology enabled products in more areas of our daily lives, in everything from cell phones, with vastly improved power duration and screen quality, to medical devices which may be implanted within the body for the instant diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nanotechnology unlocks new possibilities in every aspect of science with the potential to enable a step-change towards improved quality of life.
How long have we known about nanotech?
On December 29, 1959 at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Dr. Richard Feynman gave a lecture entitled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”. In his lecture Dr. Feynman, a physicist, talked about the possibilities of manipulating and controlling things on the nanoscale. This lecture ‘kick-started’ interest throughout academia and triggered nanoscale discoveries in all scientific disciplines over the last four decades.
Why has interest in this industry increased so rapidly?
Interest has increased for two related reasons. Firstly, there is a need on the part of industry to go beyond the current limitations of existing technologies to meet the increased needs and expectations of consumers. As with all competitive industries, those businesses with the best product lines, at the right price tend to be the most successful. Nanotechnology has effectively unlocked a whole new dimension of functionality and performance and the race is on to develop marketable products which incorporate these enhancements. Secondly, the enabling tools which allow researchers to develop and manufacture products at this scale are now readily usable. These tools also allow us to bridge the nanoscale world to the enabling, or platform, technologies of the micro-world in the production of finished, useful products.
I have a nanotechnology idea or business, how do I get in touch with you?
Please email info@nanotech-industries.com for further information.