MOUNT
PLEASANT, Mich., May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Dendritic
NanoTechnologies Inc. (DNT), a technology company
that develops advanced dendritic polymers used to
produce commercial products, today announced a patent-pending
development: a new family of scalable, precision
dendrimer nanostructures. The new technology, developed
by DNT, is called Priostar(TM) and offers a significant
advantage over other precision nanostructures by
reducing the complexity and duration of the synthesis
process. The new Priostar family of scalable, precision
dendrimers breaks through previous cost barriers
and addresses industry needs for nanostructures that
can be manufactured in high volumes at costs attractive
for a wide variety of uses.
"Our new Priostar dendrimers, as nanoscale building
blocks, radically change the current economics of
nanotechnology. They place DNT in the enviable position
of controlling a dominant nanoscale platform with
many applications in multiple billion-dollar markets," said
Robert Berry, DNT's chief executive officer. "This
new technology is a potentially disruptive technology
since it will establish a new price point for an
essential technology. Furthermore, Priostar extends
DNT's patent estate while accelerating commercialization
of our dendrimer technology."
Priostar
dendrimers ("Prio" comes from the Greek
for fast, while "star" represents the shape of the
dendrimer) are unique in that they can be produced
in large quantities to precise tolerances. For example,
they can be engineered to meet the FDA's rigid requirements
for precision, scalability, and reproducibility needed
for biomedical products, and yet can be produced
in the larger quantities required for use in advanced
materials, coatings, personal and household applications,
and other commercial markets. The Priostar family
of dendrimers promises to offer unique competitive
advantages to DNT's commercial business partners.
In
a recent research report, "Sizing Nanotechnology's
Value Chain," leading nano-research firm Lux Research
noted that: "Nanotechnology is approaching a phase
change that will see it spread exponentially across
manufactured goods in the next 10 years. In 2004,
$13 billion worth of products will incorporate emerging
nanotechnology, less than one-tenth of 1% of global
manufacturing output. In 2014, we project that this
figure will rise to $2.6 trillion -- 15% of manufacturing
output in that year."(1)
Priostar Dendrimers Break New Ground in Time, Cost
to Produce
The Priostar family of dendrimers share and improve
upon the physical properties of the widely researched
PAMAM dendrimers, which were invented by Dr. Donald
Tomalia, DNT's president and chief technology officer.
Dendrimers are sphere-shaped nanostructures that
can be precisely engineered to carry molecules --
either encapsulated in the interior or attached to
the surface. The size and shape of a dendrimer are
determined by shells (known as generations) grown
around a core structure, while the reactivity of
the dendrimer is determined by its surface chemical
functionality together with size and shape. The ability
to attach many different biological and chemical
compounds to the surface or to encapsulate them within
the interior of the dendrimer have made PAMAM dendrimers
attractive to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and materials
companies.
The traditional process for creating PAMAM dendrimers
includes an amidation step that involves thermodynamically
driven, lower reaction rate, chemistry, accompanied
by long reaction times involving non-differentiated,
difunctional intermediates (i.e. ethylene diamine
and methyl acrylate). These process features require
high excesses of reagents and high dilutions resulting
in low production capacities per reactor volume and
thus high costs, particularly at higher generations.
The
Priostar family of dendrimers involves the use
of faster, kinetically driven chemistry (e.g. "click
type" or other fast reactions), combined with the
use of polyfunctional branch cell reagents to rapidly
and precisely build dendrimer structures in a controlled
way, generation by generation. This present process
yields precise structures with cleaner chemistry,
requires lower excesses of reagents, and lower levels
of dilution, thus offering a higher capacity method
that is more easily scaled to commercial dimensions,
and providing new ranges of materials at lower costs.
Preliminary studies show a cost reduction of between
two to three orders of magnitude.
The Priostar family of dendrimers is based on a
proprietary production process that is both rapid
and selective. This new process allows the introduction
and control of six critical nanostructure design
parameters that may be used to engineer over 50,000
different major variations of sizes, compositions,
surface functionalities and interior nanocontainer
spaces that are expected to offer new properties
for use in a wide variety of commercial applications.
"Industry researchers are always looking for innovations
and new technology to enhance their businesses," said
Ryan Hayes, DNT's director of development. "Such
new technologies must be easy to manufacture, scale
to large volumes, have unique properties that clearly
establish a sustainable competitive advantage for
them, and be inexpensive. The new DNT Priostar family
of dendrimers meets these criteria. Many of our industry
contacts have always been enthusiastic about the
versatility of the dendrimer platform but, in the
past, cost and manufacturing complexity were concerns."
New Process Takes Less Time and Adds Functionality
"It takes approximately eight steps and one month
of processing time to create Generation 3 of a PAMAM
generation. In contrast, Generation 3 of a Priostar
dendrimer can be created in three steps and just
a few days. Our new dendrimer process also vastly
reduces the amount of labor and reagents normally
required by the PAMAM process," said Dr. Donald Tomalia,
DNT's president and chief technology officer. "An
exciting and new feature of the Priostar family of
dendrimers is the ability to add extenders or functionality
to the interior of the dendrimer to customize interior
spaces and reactivity. These features give the Priostar
dendrimers customizable encapsulation properties
that allow for greater flexibility to tailor a solution
for our customers."
According to Tomalia, the Priostar family of dendrimers
captures all of the important PAMAM dendrimer properties
and exhibits encapsulation properties in earlier
generations, thus making it less expensive and easier
to produce this highly desired feature. A new unique
feature is the amplification process. Priostar dendrimers
surface groups increase by a factor of three (3)
for each succeeding generation (G1=12 surface groups,
G2=36 surface groups, G3=108 surface groups). The
PAMAM surface groups only increase by a factor of
2 for each succeeding generation (G1=8 surface groups,
G2=16 surface groups, G3=32 surface groups). This
unique amplification process allows rapid building
of surface functionality and molecular weight, therefore
obtaining container properties in fewer generations
than for PAMAM. Since each generational addition
adds significant costs due to increases in unit operations,
the attainment of high molecular weights and surface
functionality in fewer steps indicates significant
cost reduction potential. In addition, Priostar dendrimers
are more thermally stable (approximately 350 degrees
C for Priostar versus 130 degrees C for PAMAM).
Target Markets and Availability
The Priostar family of dendrimers serves as a major
nanostructure platform that will have broad commercial
application. The Priostar family of dendrimers could
have a significant impact on many markets including
medical and health, food and agriculture, energy
and electronics, environmental and industrial safety,
personal and household, and chemicals and manufacturing.
These dendrimers will find value in all these industries
as they are used to develop new products and improve
existing technologies for diagnostic imaging, drug
delivery, gene therapy, surface coatings, sensors,
catalysts, nanofabrication, solid state lighting,
surfactants, binders, antimicrobials, lotions, cosmetics,
pigments, dyes, ion exchange media, and ultrafiltration.
Initially, Priostar dendrimers will not be made
available to the research community. However, DNT
plans to establish a limited number of business partnerships
for commercial research which could lead to direct
commercialization.
About DNT
DENDRITIC NANOTECHNOLOGIES INC. (DNT) develops dendrimer
structures that assist business partners in producing
commercial products -- where dendrimers are the added
value differentiator. DNT was incorporated in 2003,
is a U.S. company with 19 employees, and is located
in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. DNT's technology development
is directed by Donald A. Tomalia, Ph.D., President
and Chief Technical Officer. Dr. Tomalia is the inventor
of dendrimers and has led numerous commercial developments
during a 25-year management and senior scientist
career with The Dow Chemical Company.
Dendrimers are nanostructures with specific, precise
and predictable physical properties that make them
especially useful for pharmaceuticals, medical imaging,
electronics, materials, and the mass commercial markets.
DNT has a broad and comprehensive IP portfolio that
comprises over 200 patents in 41 patent families-a
unique level of IP concentration among nanotechnology
companies-and has existing licensing agreements with
established revenue streams for dendrimer technology.
See http://www.dnanotech.com .
Starpharma (ASX: SPL - News )
is an equity holder in DNT is focused on the development
and application of dendrimer nanotechnologies as
drugs against major diseases. Starpharma's lead dendrimer
product, VivaGel(TM) is currently in U.S. FDA Phase
II human clinical trials. VivaGel is a topical microbicide
gel product that has been developed for women as
a preventative against the sexual transmission of
HIV.
NOTE: Priostar is a trademark of Dendritic Nanotechnologies
Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are held
by their respective owners.
(1)"Sizing Nanotechnology's Value Chain," October
2004, Lux Research Inc www.luxresearchinc.com
Source: Dendritic NanoTechnologies Inc.
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