Tuesday, September 20, 2011

New Zealand nanotech firm Izon to open U.S. HQ in Cambridge

By Lori Valigra, Mass High Tech correspondent

Article updated as of 9:15 a.m., Sept. 23, 2011.

Nanotechnology company Izon Science Ltd. of Christchurch, New Zealand, plans to launch its U.S. headquarters on Sept. 21 at One Kendall Square in Cambridge.

In addition to a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the company will sponsor the Inter-University Nanotechnology Measurement Championships, at which Harvard University, MIT, Boston University, and the University of Massachusetts will compete. The contestants will have to accurately measure a complex set of nanoparticles in real time.

“The nanotech champs is a fun combination of sport and science that will pitch the top universities against each other,” Izon CEO Hans van der Voorn said in a statement. “The researcher who is the quickest to accurately measure a complex set of nanoparticles will receive a cup and bragging rights.”

The events will run from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., according to a link on the company’s website. Hosting the headquarters event will be Susan Windham Bannister, CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center; Robert Coughlin, president and CEO of MassBio; and Ken Brown, executive director of the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment.

Izon Science has developed the qNano and qViro set of portable instruments that use size-tunable nanopores. The company said improvements over previously available techniques are helping advance research in fields such as drug delivery, hematology, biomedical diagnostics and vaccine development.
 
The office and lab at One Kendall Square will serve as the new U.S. hub for the nanotechnology instrument manufacturer, which said it has an expanding client base in 23 countries.

Van der Voorn said that initially, a sales scientist will work in Cambridge, along with an R&D training manager for North America, Yaniv Ganor, who will liaise with Izon’s R&D people in New Zealand and with its customers and research partners in the United States. He said the company is recruiting a sales director for North America. Van der Voorn also will use the Cambridge office as a base when visiting from New Zealand.

“If any of the U.S. collaborations bear fruit, we are in a position to form joint ventures for product development,” he said. “Yaniv’s background in physics and biomedical engineering make him an ideal person to represent us in those projects. Some of these could be substantial projects in their own right.”

He added that Izon also is working closely with ViThera Labs, its neighbor in Cambridge. “We are sharing their lab space and putting our equipment into their lab so they can offer specialized research and analytical services using the equipment.”

Among the contestants is Jim Felton from the Harvard laboratory of Professors Bruce and Barbara Furie. He is using Izon’s instrument to study the role blood microparticles may have in the formation of blood clots. Also, Steven Biller, a postdoctoral associate from the MIT laboratory of Professor Penny Chisholm in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will compete. He is researching marine cyanobaterium Prochlorococcus, the smallest and most abundant photosynthetic organism on the planet.  Additional contestants are Meredith Mintzer, a postdoctoral fellow from the BU laboratory of Professor Mark Grinstaff in the Department of Biomedical Engineering who is using Izon’s instruments to research drug delivery systems, and Iraj Aalaei, a graduate student from the laboratory of Professor Dhimiter Bello at the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing. That group is using Izon’s instruments in nanotoxicology research with interest in the biological significance of exposure, exposure routes, measurement issues and metrics, and the relationship between the physical properties of nanoparticles with health outcomes.

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Update: The winner of the first Inter-University Nanotechnology Measurement Championships was Boston University postdoctoral fellow Meredith Mintzer, who competed against contestants at Harvard University, MIT and the University of Massachusetts in a race to measure particle concentration and size of a bimodal distribution of nanoparticles.