Apr 24 2007
BioForce Nanosciences, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of BioForce Nanosciences Holdings, Inc., announced today the March sale of the Nano eNabler(TM) molecular printer to Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. Louisiana Tech recently received the third highest rating for nanotechnology education by Small Times, a respected journal on the nanotech subject.
The Louisiana Tech's Department of Biomedical Engineering Professor Dr. Mark DeCoster will be using the Nano eNabler technology to study the patterning of cells -- brain and stem -- in culture; also investigators at the adjoining building where the Institute of Micromanufacturing is housed will be studying patterning of nanoparticles and nanowires. The Nano eNabler(TM) system -- BioForce's flagship product -- is a benchtop molecular printer that places tiny domains of materials onto surfaces with nanometer spatial precision.
Dr. DeCoster says he became aware of the Nano eNabler molecular printer from an article and was intrigued with the systems' ability to deposit and pattern proteins that will retain biological activity. "My initial idea is to use the Nano eNabler printer to pattern brain cells. We have successfully begun research in this area using photomasking and layer-by-layer lift off techniques with proteins and polymers. While the structural integrity of molecules deposited in this way is maintained, biological activity -- for example, enzymes -- is most likely diminished or destroyed." DeCoster is using the Nano eNabler system to remedy this problem and deposit proteins that retain biological activity to investigate the influence on brain cell patterning.
BioForce Nanosciences develops and commercializes nanotech tools and solutions for the life sciences. Founded over a decade ago, BioForce has been providing products to the atomic force microscopy (AFM) market. In the past year and a half, BioForce has released the Nano eNabler molecular printer. BioForce technology is being used in sensor functionalization, ECM (extracellular matrix) patterning and cell adhesion; printing proteins to guide neural cell growth; printing signaling proteins to study stem cell differentiation, multilayer soft lithography, and microfluidics devices; and printing patterns of ECM proteins on different substrates to study the effect on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) growth and differentiation to name a few.