Industry to benefit from bionano and nanomedicine knowledge transfer
NanoKTN, one of the UK's networks for micro and nanotechnologies, is partnering with Bio Nano Consulting to support development and understanding of bionano and nanomedicine development in the UK.
NanoKTN, one of the UK's networks for micro and nanotechnologies, is partnering with Bio Nano Consulting to support development and understanding of bionano and nanomedicine development in the UK.
The 20-month collaboration also aims to provide the UK Government with input aimed at shaping policy and strategy and will promote technology transfer and communication between researchers and industry. The aim is to encourage debate amongst interested parties regarding the key ethical issues surrounding the potential impact of bionano and nanomedicine.
Bionano and Nanomedicine are being widely applied with positive affect. For example, the US biotech company Abraxis has developed world's first and only protein-bound chemotherapeutic compound, ABRAXANE for injectable suspension (paclitaxel protein-bound particles for injectable suspension) (albumin bound), which is based on the company's proprietary tumor targeting technology known as the nab platform.
The NanoKTN and BNC will launch and coordinate at least four focus groups per year, all dealing with a variety of bionano and nanomedicine related topics, such as drug delivery and discovery, nano diagnostics and biomedical electronics. In addition, it aims to organise a major flagship event, in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, scheduled for February 2009, to cover the use of nanotechnology in areas such as regenerative medicine.
This partnership between the NanoKTN and BNC includes the secondment of Dr Mike Fisher to the role of theme manager, who will be responsible for managing the day-to-day operational activities of the bionano and nanomedicine theme for the NanoKTN.
Fisher said: "With so many recent and positive developments in Bionano and Nanomedicine, this is the right time for the NanoKTN to be promoting and supporting this area of work. This is an extremely exciting opportunity."
BNC is jointly owned by University College London (UCL) and Imperial College and was founded in 2005 as part of the DTI (now Technology Strategy Board) Micro & Nano Technology (MNT) initiative. As part of the original remit of the BNC, it was stipulated that they participate in the creation and management of a UK Bio-Nano Network.
Director of the NanoKTN, Dr Alec Reader, said: "Working with the BNC has many benefits an