Nanospectra Biosciences, Inc.
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8285 El Rio Street, Suite 130
Houston, Texas 77054
(713) 842-2720 ext 201 Fax (713) 440-9349
For Immediate Release
Nanospectra Biosciences Receives $750,000 Air Force Grant
STTR Phase II Grant Funds Development of Chemical and Biosensing Platform
Houston – January 5, 2005 – Nanospectra Biosciences, Inc. today announced that it has received a
$750,000 STTR Phase II grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to continue development
of a nanoshell-based Raman sensing platform for the detection of chemical and biological agents. Naomi
Halas, PhD, Stanley C. Moore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of
Chemistry at Rice University, is the Principal Investigator under the grant.
“We are excited about the opportunity to continue development of Raman-based diagnostic and detection
applications using nanoshells,” stated J. Donald Payne, President and CEO of Nanospectra Biosciences.
“The results of the Phase I STTR funded by the Air Force demonstrated that nanoshells provide an
extremely robust platform for Raman-based detection of molecules, with a sensitivity level higher than
any other platform we have seen. The Phase II program funded by the Air Force will develop this into a
commercial platform and allow extension into model detection systems.”
Nanoshells are virus-sized nanoparticles consisting of an electrically insulating core wrapped in a thin
metal shell. Nanoshells were invented at Rice University in the laboratories of Dr. Halas. By controlling
the thickness of core and shell, nanoshells can be tuned to absorb light at specific wavelengths.
Additionally, nanoshells have strong near-field electromagnetic effects which can be used in sensors for
Raman-based detection applications in biodefense and medicine.
“The details of the Phase I work funded by the Air Force, which were recently published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrated that individual nanoshells can magnify
the Raman signatures of molecules 10,000 times more than current enhancement methods, potentially
enabling more sensitive biosensing and biodefense devices,” stated Dr. Halas. “The tunable feature of
nanoshells allows us to move the wavelengths in our Raman system to the near-infrared, which is
particularly useful in biological applications.”
When certain molecules are exposed to monochromatic light, such as the light from a laser, a tiny fraction
of the light emerges at different wavelengths, providing a characteristic signal, or “fingerprint”, that
allows identification of the molecule. This shift in wavelength is referred to as the Raman effect, for Sir
C.V. Raman whose pioneering discovery earned the 1930 Nobel Prize in physics. The Raman signal from
molecules can be magnified by certain metals but, unfortunately, the fraction of light produced in the
Raman effect is still too small for practical measurement in traditional applications. Significant research
is being conducted in academic centers to develop new methods to magnify the Raman signal in order to
develop more sensitive diagnostic techniques for chemicals and bio-molecules. Potential applications
include the rapid identification of toxins and chemical agents, the characterization of chemicals in
pharmaceutical development and the identification of pathogens.
“Normal metal substrates can magnify Raman signals up to one million times, while our nanoshell work
has demonstrated a robust Raman magnification of 10 billion times,” continued Dr. Halas. “This
increased enhancement, and resulting increased sensitivity, may allow us to create a Raman detection
platform for a variety of new industrial and medical applications. We are extremely grateful to the Air
Force for funding this work.”
The STTR program is similar to SBIR grants but involves an industry-academic partnership. Rice
University will participate as a subcontractor in this two-year $750,000 STTR program. Nanospectra
Biosciences recently announced the receipt of a $2 million award from the Advanced Technology
Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop techniques for the seamless
detection and treatment of cancer using nanoshells and a $400,000 grant from the National Institute of
Health for the development of a platform for the detection and characterization of proteins associated with
Alzheimer’s Disease.