Shrink Nanotechnologies,
Inc. ("Shrink") (OTCBB:INKN), an innovative nanotechnology company
developing products and licensing opportunities in the solar energy production,
medical diagnostics and sensors and biotechnology research and development tools
businesses, today announced that Bruce R. Conklin, M.D., a Senior Investigator
at the Gladstone Institute and Professor of Medical Genetics and Cellular and
Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California San Francisco, and Dr.
Kara McCloskey, Professor at the School of Engineering, University of California,
Merced, have joined its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).
Drs. Conklin and McCloskey, respectively, bring their IPS (or induced
pluripotent stem cell) and tissue engineering expertise to the Shrink`s suite
of
biotechnology research tools, StemDisc and CellAlign. Dr. Conklin in particular
is a recognized international leader in the movement to use stem cells to
discover cutting-edge drugs and to eventually use stem cell research to create
therapies to cure disease. These important additions further strengthen the
SAB,
which already includes Dr. Michelle Khine, the scientific founder of Shrink`s
nanofabrication platform.
"We are extremely honored to have these two distinguished scientists join
our
advisory board. The Scientific Advisory Board plays a key role in keeping Shrink
closely associated with the scientific community and provides both scientific
and industry guidance to our evolving technologies, supporting our company
mandate, which is to bring these technologies to commercialization," said
Mark
L. Baum, CEO of Shrink Nanotechnologies. "Shrink now has an exceptional
group of
scientific advisors who bring complementary skills and expertise to our novel
biological research and development tools."
Shrink is developing biological research and development tools that employ
its
technology and microfabrication expertise to offer a new paradigm for cell
biology, molecular biology, immunodiagnostics and stem cell research.
Shrink`s current products include:
StemDisc, designed to improve embryoid body (EB) formation of stem cells at
a
higher rate and efficiency over current EB formation methods. It also allows
for
a multitude of applications across many currently existing microwell plate
formats, thereby increasing the flexibility of use for researchers.
CellAlign, a platform technology that allows for the structured alignment of
biological tissues, particularly tissues which naturally grow in a linear
fashion--cardiac or nerve tissue. The key feature is a microfabricated substrate
with non-periodic linear patterned grooves that allow for the alignment of cells
along a single axis. One such potential use for CellAlign is the creation of
"heart patches" for the treatment of damaged heart tissue during cardiac
infarction.
Posted October 20th, 2009
