Texas Tech University at Lubbock, $1.8 million.  The grant will further Texas Tech’s partnership with Bayer CropScience and help launch the International Center of Excellence in Agriculture Genomics and Biotechnology. In addition to the TETF award, Texas Tech is committing $1.8 million for personnel and lab equipment, and Bayer CropScience endowed a professorship at the university.  The funding helped lure Dr. Thea Wilkins, one of the world’s premiere cotton geneticists, from the University of California at Davis (UC-Davis) to become director of genomics at the International Center.

UT Health Science Center at Houston, $2.5 million.
Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., joins the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston as a professor of nanotechnology. He also will be president of the Alliance for NanoHealth, a collaborative venture of seven Houston-area research institutions dedicated to nurturing medical applications of the relatively new science of creating materials and devices on a nanometer scale – one billionth of a meter.  For the full article on Dr. Ferrari please click here.

Nanotechnology Research Initiative, $10 million.  Governor Perry announced a new Nanotechnology Research Initiative (NRI) in Texas, a $30 million public-private partnership funded by a $10 million grant from the Emerging Technology Fund, $10 million form the University of Texas System and the remainder from private industry. “With this investment we will bring seven to eight globally recognized researchers and their teams to Texas to develop breakthrough nanoelectronics research, which will impact our semiconductor, energy, life sciences, aerospace and defense industries,” Perry said.  The researcher and their teams will be placed at two of our region’s universities, University of Texas at Dallas and University of Texas at Arlington. For the full article, please click here.

UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, $4.1 million.  The research superiority grant is for its research imaging programs. The funding will help establish a Comprehensive Facility for Animal Imaging Research where scientists will use imaging to evaluate new drugs and medical devices prior to and during human trials. For the full article, please click here.

Commercialization Awards:

CardioSpectra, Inc., of San Antonio, $1.35 million for the commercialization of its Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) Diagnostic Catheter.  The catheter allows doctors to better predict the likelihood a patient will suffer a heart attack based on vascular plaque; it provides diagnostic capabilities unavailable through existing technologies, such as MRI, CT and ultrasound devices.  The OCT also has applications in ophthalmology, cancer detection and glucose monitoring for diabetics.

Xilas Medical, Inc., of San Antonio, $1 million for the commercialization of three medical devices that will aid in the early detection of neuropathies, foot stress and inflammation that often lead to diabetic ulcers and amputation.  The VPT meter provides physicians the ability to determine a patient’s risk of amputation as the result of neuropathy.  The GlideSoft insole reduces friction and pressure where traditional insoles only reduce pressure.  The Temp touch dermal thermometer allows home monitoring for patients to detect inflammation before a wound is created.

Molecular Imprints of Austin, $3 million for the commercialization of a “disruptive” technology called Step and Flash Imprint Lithography (S-FIL) for fabricating nano-scale devices and components. It has applications to semiconductors, light emitting diodes, disk drives, displays, digital cameras and bio devices.

CorInnova, Incorporated, of College Station, $500,000 for the commercialization of its Heart Therapy Device, a life-saving technology that reduces by 60 percent or more the instances of congestive heart failure in patients who have suffered a severe heart attack.

Endothelix, Inc., of Houston, $1 million for the development of new diagnostic technology which will allow physicians to more accurately, quickly and inexpensively assess patients’ cardiovascular health.  The medical device the company develops measures vascular “endothelial function” through temperature change in the fingertip.  Endothelial dysfunction is the gateway to cardiovascular disease, and current endothelial function monitoring is limited to research laboratories.  This critical technology will allow physicians to monitor endothelial function in their clinics and their offices as well as by patients in their homes.  More than 63 million Americans have cardiovascular disease, but only one in five are aware of it, according to medical experts. 

itRobotics, Inc., of Stafford, $750,000 to support the development and production of pipe inspection robots, which will enable – for the first time in many cases – the inspection of a significant portion of tubular infrastructure for gas, nuclear plants, power plants, and non-energy pipelines.  About 42 percent of U.S. gas distribution pipelines cannot be inspected; therefore, this critical technology will enable compliance with the 2002 Pipeline Safety Improvement Act.   The technology will help reduce accidents and associated liability in plants and pipelines, protect the environment from hazardous spills and toxic leaks, and reduce the risk and high cost of energy pipe failures.

Bauhaus, Inc., of San Antonio, $500,000 to support development and distribution of an animation software solution that replaces hybrid paper and digital methods with a complete digital system for animation and special effects.  Bauhaus technology has transformed the animation industry, and will further secure Texas’ place on the map as a high-tech hub and center for the creative arts.

NanoComposites, Inc. was awarded $1.5 million to commercialize its proprietary process for the functionalization of carbon nanotubes.  In 2007, NanoComposites will be producing uniquely enhanced elastomers for use in mission critical seals used in upstream oil and gas drilling operations. NanoComposites, Inc. has been working in collaboration with Rice University and assisted by the Greater Houston Partnership.

Nanospectra Biosciences, Inc., was awarded $1,250,000 to fund the clinical development of its AuroLase™ Cancer Therapy. Nanospectra’s primary focus is the development and commercialization of AuroLase^TM which is broadly applicable to virtually all solid tumors.  Other potential applications of AuroShell^TM micro particles in development include the detection of disease and bio-warfare agents through Raman-based substrates and immunodiagnostic assays and the development of laser eye protection for military use. Nanospectra Biosciences, Inc.’s collaboration partners are Rice University, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTMB at Galveston and the Greater Houston Partnership.

Hanson Robotics, Inc., of Richardson, $1.5 million for the commercialization of its patent-pending robot that offers more lifelike appearance than existing robots and speech recognition software that creates more realistic human-robot interactions. Initial applications of the technology will be robotics for the entertainment field and for potential prosthetic research and applications. Their collaboration partners are UT-Arlington and UT-Dallas.

Research Matching Awards:

Carbon Nanotube Acceleration Project (CNAP), an operating division of Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc. (CNI) was awarded $975,000 to help bring to the market a new fuel cell technology that is expected to power the next generation of portable and wireless electronic devices. The technology was developed by the late Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry, Professor Rick Smalley, at Rice University. The Houston-based company will use the grant as matching funds for a $975,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology.  More than $2.7 million in private and public sector investments have already been made in the technology to help bring it to market by early 2007.  The ETF grant is expected to help leverage an additional $10 million in strategic investments. CNI has been collaborating with Rice University and assisted by the Economic Development Alliance for Brazoria County.

Sematech- DARPA project was awarded $5 million for ATDF Equipment and to further Nano-research projects.