FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                  NIST 97-08
March 6, 1997

Contact: Michael Baum                   ATP ANNOUNCES NEW PROJECTS
         (301) 975-2763                 IN ELECTRONICS, BIOTECHNOLOGY,
         michael.baum@nist.gov          ENERGY AND POLYMER RECYCLING


     The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and
Technology today announced eight new research projects, cost-shared with
U.S. industry under the Advanced Technology Program, to resolve
challenging issues in key technologies that could underlie economically
important new capabilities in electronics, biotechnology, energy and
polymer recycling.

     The projects were chosen from the ATP 1996 General Competition. If
carried through to completion, the eight projects will be valued at
$36.9 million, with approximately $17.6 million in funding from private
industry and $19.3 million in ATP funding. The awards are contingent on
the signing of formal agreements between NIST and the project proposers.

     Examples of the technical hurdles to be attacked include:

*    taking advantage of a newly discovered class of highly selective
     industrial catalysts by developing technology to directly oxidize
     natural gas to methanol. Schemes to directly convert methane to
     methanol have been attempted many times, but the resulting process
     has always been too inefficient for practical use. Success in this
     project would make possible much more economical use of the
     nation's vast reserves of natural gas.

*    developing new designs and fabrication techniques to significantly
     enhance the performance of a newly developed tunable color filter
     for digital displays. The technology is novel, and if the work is
     successful, it could enable a wholly new class of small,
     very-high-resolution, full-color displays which should find ready
     application in the rapidly growing markets for tiny, lightweight
     displays for virtual reality gear or hand-held computers.

     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
accelerates, or in many cases enables, potentially important R&D
projects that industry otherwise would not undertake, or would not
devote significant resources to, because of the significant technical
risks involved.

     ATP general competitions are open to proposals from any area of
technology. The awards are made on the basis of a rigorous peer-reviewed
competition that considers the scientific and technical merit of each
project and its potential benefits to the U.S. economy. Applicants must
include a detailed business plan for bringing the new technology to
market with their own funds once technical milestones have been achieved
under ATP support.

     A list of the selected projects is below.

     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-

Advanced Technology Program
General Competition - 1996                                Announced 3/97
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Direct Oxidation of Natural Gas to Methanol and Transportation Fuels
Catalytica, Inc., Mountain View, CA

     Develop a process, based on new catalysts, for the efficient,
     direct conversion of methane to methanol, enabling better use of
     U.S. natural gas reserves and reducing the nation's reliance on
     crude oil imports.

Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K
Est. project budget: $4,104 K
Announced: March 1997
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Enabling Large-Scale Recovery of Plastics from Durable Goods
MBA Polymers, Richmond, CA

     Develop significantly improved process technology for sorting and
     separating high-value engineering plastics (used in durable goods)
     from the waste stream as an enabling technology for recycling.

Requested ATP funds: $687 K
Est. project budget: $1,330 K
Announced: March 1997
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Programmable Nanoscale Engines for Molecular Separation
CuraGen Corporation, Branford, CT

     Develop a practical nanoscale molecular pump capable of
     transporting molecules and efficiently separating them by mass, as
     part of an integrated, miniaturized system for DNA analysis.

Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K
Est. project budget: $3,431 K
Announced: March 1997
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A Portable Genetic Analysis System
Nanogen, Inc., San Diego, CA

     Develop a portable genetic analysis system that can rapidly and
     accurately profile a genetic sequence for applications including
     forensic analysis, battlefield casualty identification, trauma
     victim identification, diagnostics, and environmental and health
     monitoring.

Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K
Est. project budget: $3,935 K
Announced: March 1997
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Cost-Effective Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cells for Distributed Power
Generation
The Babcock & Wilcox Company, Alliance, OH
     SOFCo, L.P. (Salt Lake City, UT)
     Intertec Southwest LLC (Tucson, AZ)

     Develop high-temperature ceramic and manufacturing technologies for
     future cost-effective planar solid oxide fuel cells that generate
     efficient and environmentally sound electric power from natural
     gas.

Requested ATP funds: $2,915 K
Est. project budget: $5,950 K
Announced: March 1997
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High Performance Sensor Arrays for Digital X-Ray and Visible Light Imaging
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, CA
     Thermotrex Corporation (San Diego, CA)
     TPL, Inc. (Albuquerque, NM)

     Develop the next generation of large-area digital image sensors,
     based on thin-film silicon technology, with higher spatial
     resolution, higher sensitivity and lower electronic noise for
     applications in medical imaging, non-destructive evaluation and
     document scanning.

Requested ATP funds: $5,959 K
Est. project budget: $13,186 K
Announced: March 1997
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Color Sequential Imaging
ColorLink, Inc., Boulder, CO
     Develop technology necessary to produce lightweight,
     high-resolution color display and imaging devices based on color
     sequential imaging using a solid-state electro-optic tunable
     filter.

Requested ATP funds: $1,800 K
Est. project budget: $2,386 K
Announced: March 1997
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Development of Novel DNA Binding Proteins as Antiviral Therapeutics
Sangamo BioSciences, Inc., Aurora, CO

     Develop key methodologies to design and produce sequence specific
     DNA binding proteins that target and repress any clinically
     relevant gene in human or viral DNA, leading to novel therapies for
     infectious viruses such as HIV and HBV.

Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K
Est. project budget: $2,680 K
Announced: March 1997
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