Contact: Michael Baum, michael.baum@nist.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: G 95-43
July 13, 1995
Contact: Michael Baum NIST ANNOUNCES 24 NEW
(301) 975-2763 ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
PROGRAM AWARDS
The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and
Technology today announced 24 new research and development projects to
receive cost-shared funding under the department's Advanced Technology
Program.
Seventeen projects, with topics ranging from a method to produce
high-performance industrial lubricants from specially bred yeast to an
improved x-ray source for medical diagnostic equipment, were selected
from among 251 applicants to the ATP general competition for 1995. An
additional seven projects were selected from 27 applicants to a focused
competition on advanced tools for DNA diagnostics.
"I'm particularly pleased to see the involvement of many small
companies, who risk a great deal in devoting the time and money
necessary to develop the detailed, well- researched proposals required
for an ATP competition. I expect to see important gains for the
nation's economy down the road as a result of the partnerships we are
launching today," said Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown.
The Advanced Technology Program provides cost-shared funding to
industry for high- risk R&D projects with the potential to spark
important, broad-based economic benefits for the United States. While
the program does not fund product-development projects, the ATP enables
potentially important R&D projects that industry would not undertake on
its own. ATP awards are made on the basis of a rigorous competitive
review considering scientific and technical merit of each proposal and
its potential broad benefits to the U.S. economy. Applicants must
include a business plan for bringing the new technology to market once
technical milestones have been achieved under ATP support.
ATP general competitions are open to proposals from any area of
technology. ATP focused programs concentrate resources on key technical
barriers in specific areas defined by industry to offer the potential
for major economic benefits to the nation. The focused program in
"Tools for DNA Diagnostics," established in 1994, is designed to
accelerate the development of diagnostic methods, instrumentation, and
data-handling protocols to speed up DNA analyses and sequence
interpretations by a factor of ten or more, at costs a tenth or less of
present-day costs. Today's award announcement brings the total number
of projects in this focused program to 20.
When carried through to completion, the 24 projects announced today
will cost approximately $60.5 million in ATP funding, matched by
approximately $52.4 million in funding from private industry. The
awards announced today are contingent on the signing of formal
agreements between NIST and the project proposers.
Lists of the selected projects for the two competitions are
attached.
Additional Statistics
ATP General Competition for 1995 -- 17 awards
Joint ventures: 5 (35 percent)
Projects led by small businesses: 9 (53 percent)
Total number of participants: 31
Total number of small businesses: 12
Major technology areas: biotechnology (5), electronics (3), energy
& environment (3), chemicals & chemical
processing (2), materials (2),
manufacturing (1), computing & information
processing (1)
ATP Focused Program Competition, Tools for DNA Diagnostics -- 7 awards
Joint ventures: 2 (29 percent)
Projects led by small businesses: 4 (57 percent)
Total number of participants: 16
Total number of small businesses: 6
As a non-regulatory agency of the Commerce Department's Technology
Administration, NIST promotes U.S. economic growth by working with
industry to develop and apply technology, measurements and standards.
-30-
ATP General Competition, 1995
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Crystallization and Structural Determination of G-Coupled Protein Receptors
3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Exton, PA
Develop a combination of novel protein engineering and
crystallization methods to acquire previously unavailable molecular
structure data on a medically important class of membrane-embedded
proteins.
Requested ATP funds: $1,998 K
Est. project budget: $3,669 K
Announced: July 1995
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Diamond-Like Nanocomposite Technology
Advanced Refractory Technologies, Inc., Buffalo, NY
Develop scientific understanding and basic process-control
information to enable the use of "diamond-like nanocomposite" (DLN)
films, a new family of thin-film materials, in a wide range of
industrial applications.
Requested ATP funds: $1,996 K
Est. project budget: $3,673 K
Announced: July 1995
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Development of Closed Cycle Air Refrigeration Technology for
Refrigeration Markets
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, PA
Lewis Energy Systems, Inc. (North Salt Lake, UT)
Design, fabricate, and pilot test a new form of industrial
refrigeration equipment using dry air as the working fluid in
a closed cycle at high pressures.
Requested ATP funds: $2,107 K
Est. project budget: $4,301 K
Announced: July 1995
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Universal Donor Organs for Transplantation
Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., New Haven, CT
Develop molecular biology and enzymology techniques to produce
transgenic animals as a source of donor organs for transplantation
that express human genes to eliminate hyperacute rejection response
in the patient.
Requested ATP funds: $1,999 K
Est. project budget: $3,203 K
Announced: July 1995
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Marine Microorganisms and Saline Fermentation: A New Industrial Resource
Aphios Corporation, Woburn, MA
Develop a knowledge base and technology platform to tap into the
pharmaceutically, industrially, and environmentally valuable
chemical diversity that remains unexplored in enormous numbers of
marine microorganisms.
Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K
Est. project budget: $2,600 K
Announced: July 1995
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Development of New Technologies for Treating and Recycling Wastewater from
Aquaculture Facilities
Aquatic Systems/Kent SeaFarms Corporation, San Diego, CA
Develop new wastewater treatment technologies that are
cost-effective means of removing metabolites from fish farm
effluents to allow for water reuse in aquaculture and for
irrigation of agriculture crops.
Requested ATP funds: $1,996 K
Est. project budget: $3,260 K
Announced: July 1995
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Development of a High-Pressure Oxygen Generator Using a Solid
Electrolyte Oxygen Separation (SEOS) Technology
Ceramatec, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT
Design, build, and test a laboratory prototype high-purity oxygen
generator for industrial, medical, and other uses using ceramic
membranes that can separate oxygen from air and compress the gas to
high pressure.
Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K
Est. project budget: $5,805 K
Announced: July 1995
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Technology Development for the Smart Display - A Versatile
High-Performance Video Display Integrated with Electronics
FED Corporation, Hopewell Junction, NY
Analog Devices (Greensboro, NC)
BFGoodrich Avionics Systems (Columbus, OH)
Cetek Technologies, Inc. (Poughkeepsie, NY)
InfiMed, Inc. (Liverpool, NY)
Kaiser Electronics (San Jose, CA)
Develop technologies based on multi-layer ceramic modules to
integrate computer functions and a high-performance field emitter
array display in a single, compact, cost-effective Smart Display.
Requested ATP funds: $7,870 K
Est. project budget: $15,739 K
Announced: July 1995
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Novel Synthetic Fused Quartz for Semiconductor Manufacturing
General Electric Company Corporate Research & Development, Schenectady, NY
Use ultrapure synthetic sand and fundamental studies into how this
sand fuses into solid glassy forms to develop a new, ultrapure
synthetic quartz technology to meet the stringent cleanliness
demands of next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.
Requested ATP funds: $482 K
Est. project budget: $1,153 K
Announced: July 1995
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Low-Cost Amorphous Silicon Manufacturing Technology
General Electric Company Corporate Research & Development, Schenectady, NY
EG&G Reticon (Sunnyvale, CA)
Develop an improved, low-cost, high-yield manufacturing process for
fabricating large amorphous silicon devices for use in medical
imaging systems and other applications.
Requested ATP funds: $1,575 K
Est. project budget: $3,438 K
Announced: July 1995
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Non-Chromatographic Enantiomer Separation and Purification with High
Separation Factors
IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc., American Fork, UT
Develop a novel technology to separate, recover, and purify
enantiomers (left- handed or right-handed molecules) from mixtures,
with applications in pharmaceuticals and other speciality
chemicals.
Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K
Est. project budget: $3,042 K
Announced: July 1995
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Oleaginous Yeast Fermentation as a Production Method for Squalene and Other
Isoprenoids
Mycogen Corporation, San Diego, CA
Use modern genetic technologies to modify oleaginous yeast to
stimulate the overproduction of isoprenoids, a commercially
important class of lipid, initially producing squalene, an
important biodegradable lubricant.
Requested ATP funds: $1,043 K
Est. project budget: $1,337 K
Announced: July 1995
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Precision Optoelectronics Assembly
Precision Optoelectronics Assembly Consortium, Ann Arbor, MI
Adept Technology, Inc. (San Jose, CA)
AT&T Bell Laboratories (Princeton, NJ)
Boeing Company (Kent, WA)
Ford Motor Company (Dearborn, MI)
Motorola, Inc. - Phoenix Corporate Research Laboratories (Tempe, AZ)
New Jersey Institute of Technology Center for Manufacturing Systems (Newark,
NJ)
National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (Ann Arbor, MI)
Develop key technologies to enable fast, flexible automated
assembly of optoelectronics systems.
Requested ATP funds: $4,936 K
Est. project budget: $10,181 K
Announced: July 1995
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RNA Binding Protein Technology for Identification of Novel Therapeutics
Symphony Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Malvern, PA
Develop assays and other molecular technologies to identify
compounds that can modulate production of specific proteins, by
intervening in the action of RNA binding proteins, for the
treatment of diseases, including CNS disorders, cancer, and viral
infections.
Requested ATP funds: $1,707 K
Est. project budget: $2,284 K
Announced: July 1995
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Novel X-ray Source for CT Scanners
Teledyne Electronic Technologies, Rancho Cordova, CA
Develop a novel cooling technology for the X-ray tubes used in
computed tomography scanners to permit longer continuous use of the
scanning equipment, greatly reducing costs and increasing use of
this important diagnostic tool.
Requested ATP funds: $1,165 K
Est. project budget: $1,739 K
Announced: July 1995
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Cost-Effective Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cells for Power Generation
The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI
IBM Microelectronics (Hopewell Junction, NY)
Develop high-temperature ceramic and manufacturing technologies for
a cost-effective 1- to 2-kilowatt planar solid oxide fuel cell
that generates efficient and environmentally sound electric power
from natural gas.
Requested ATP funds: $2,070 K
Est. project budget: $4,225 K
Announced: July 1995
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Non-Contact Optical Metrology of Complex Surface Forms for Precision Industrial
Manufacturing
TROPEL Corporation, Fairport, NY
Develop a unique interferometric measurement technology based on
diffractive optics to enable rapid non-contact measurement of
complex shapes such as cylinders and cones.
Requested ATP funds: $924 K
Est. project budget: $2,039 K
Announced: July 1995
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ATP Competition on DNA Diagnostics, 1995
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Self-Contained Cartridge Integrating Nucleic Acid Extraction, Specific Target
Amplification, and "Dip Stick" Immediate Detection
Immunological Associates of Denver, Denver, CO
A cartridge-based method of detecting specific DNA sequences will
be developed in which DNA in a sample will be extracted, probed for
medically relevant genetic sequences, and only then made visible
via a series of reactions that agglutinate dyed beads into colored
particles.
Requested ATP funds: $1,581 K
Est. project budget: $1,671 K
Announced: July 1995
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An Integrated Microelectronic DNA Diagnostic System
Nanogen, Inc., San Diego, CA
To speed the entry of cost-effective DNA analysis into the clinical
diagnostic laboratory, an integrated system is proposed that will
carry out all necessary sample preparation and analytical
procedures in a linked series of microfabricated sites that sum
into a microlaboratory on a single chip.
Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K
Est. project budget: $3,500 K
Announced: July 1995
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DNA Diagnostics Using Self-Detected Target-Cycling Reaction (SD-TCR)
NAVIX, Inc., Camarillo, CA
Develop a rapid, low-cost DNA diagnostic system that detects DNA
sequences associated with disease, and automatically triggers
complementary cascade reactions for DNA amplification and signal
generation using current clinical laboratory instruments.
Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K
Est. project budget: $3,116 K
Announced: July 1995
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Real-Time Micro-PCR Analysis System
Perkin Elmer Corporation - Applied Biosystems Division, Foster City, CA
EG&G IC Sensors (Milpitas, CA)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN)
Cornell University Medical College (New York, NY)
University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN)
Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA)
A combination of microfabricated elements for sample preparation,
amplification, and detection will be integrated for DNA-based
analyses in a system that will allow the use of minimal sample
volumes.
Requested ATP funds: $7,281 K
Est. project budget: $14,659 K
Announced: July 1995
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Arrayed Primer Extension (APEX): The Next Generation DNA Analysis System for
Sequencing in DNA Diagnosis
Pharmacia Biotech, Inc., Piscataway, NJ
Identigene, Inc. (Houston, TX)
BioImage Systems Corporation (Ann Arbor, MI)
Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX)
Duke University (Durham, NC)
A biochemical strategy known as "arrayed primer extension" is
proposed as the basis for a cost-effective and accurate genetic
sequencing method intended for detecting and diagnosing genetic
disorders.
Requested ATP funds: $5,785 K
Est. project budget: $11,598 K
Announced: July 1995
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Generation and Development of Novel Nucleic Acid Binding Proteins and Their Use as
DNA Diagnostics
Sangamo BioSciences, Ross, CA
Develop a versatile and robust means of generating protein-based
agents capable of binding and cleaving DNA at any predetermined
site as the basis of a mutation-detection system intended for
diagnosing genetic and pathogenic human diseases as well as for
human therapeutics, research reagents, and veterinary/agricultural
products.
Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K
Est. project budget: $2,456 K
Announced: July 1995
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Development of Bar Code Diagnostics for DNA Analysis
Vysis, Inc., Downers Grove, IL
Develop a generic DNA diagnostic technology, called Bar Code
Diagnostics, in which up to 100 DNA tests for infectious or genetic
diseases can be performed simultaneously in a miniaturized system
that may not require amplification of the sample DNA.
Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K
Est. project budget: $4,274 K
Announced: July 1995
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