Caltech and Arrowhead Research Agree to Form Nanokinetics - News Item

Arrowhead Research Corporation, an emerging company in the field of nanotechnology, announced today that it has reached an agreement with Dr. Michael Roukes, California Institute of Technology Professor of Physics, Applied Physics and Bioengineering, and Caltech itself, to form a new corporation, Nanokinetics, that will focus on the development of the processes and devices needed to commercialize various nanotechnology applications.

Nanokinetics will be the third majority-owned subsidiary formed by Arrowhead Research.

Dr. Roukes has gained worldwide recognition through his work on the physics and fabrication of nanoscale electronic devices. He is the newly named founding Director of Caltech's Kavli Nanoscience Institute, which recently received a $7.5 million grant to foster innovative research at thefrontiers of nanoscale science and engineering.

Nanokinetics plans to focus upon building the technological base required to transition today's academic "nanoscience of the individual device" to the integration and mass production required for these market-ready products. With this process-oriented focus, Nanokinetics hopes to jumpstart the commercialization of many of the nanotech applications already available. Dr. Roukes stated, "It is becoming clearer every day that the companies that make early and decisive investments to establish capabilities for complex nanodevice production will dominate the broader realm of commercial nanotechnology that lie beyond first-generation applications."

One application being developed by Dr. Roukes and his team is a microfluidic-based electronic biosensor based upon BioNEMS (biofunctionalized nanoelectromechanical systems). In the near term, nanosystems such as these, with nanoscale sensor elements numbering in the hundreds and thousands, can provide powerful new approaches to bio-threat detection, drug screening, and medical diagnostics - with sensitivity approaching the single molecule level.

Posted 22^nd April 2004