Six years ago, Associate Professor of Engineering Thomas Webster began researching how scientists could use microscopic structures to stimulate skin growth. Now he is in the process of licensing his research to a private firm, a development he hopes will assist him as he tries to bring nanomaterials much closer to clinical use.
The private firm looking to utilize Webster's research is called NanoVis and is located in Purdue Research Park, a collection of more than 140 companies in West Lafayette, Ind. The startup company is based on nanotechnology that uses "nanophase materials to treat bone, dental, cartilage, vascular, bladder, and nervous system diseases," Webster wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
Webster, who came to Brown in early 2006, started this research at Purdue in 2000. He studies how to use nanomaterials - or "materials with at least one dimension less than 100 nanometers" - in surgical implants, he wrote.
Ultimately, Webster would like to use nanomaterials to stimulate growth in bones, cartilage, blood, the bladder and the brain.
Currently, materials used for implants are larger than nanomaterials, Webster wrote. His research would allow for the use of much smaller materials that are more similar to natural tissues.
Webster hopes his relationship with NanoVis will help allow him to do "some high risk research to further the products we are developing."
A May 2004 BusinessWeek article described the potential significance of Webster's work. "Webster has developed a special coating comprising molecules that self-assemble into nanotubes, a structure similar to that of bone," according to the article. If Webster's coating is applied to an implant, the bone the implant is connected to is more likely to recognize the implant as bone and grow onto it. This could potentially make implants last much longer.
According to the article, "the technique could greatly improve orthopedic implants."
Though NanoVis is primarily concerned with the use of nanomaterials, the company is different from other organizations with a similar focus because it uses nanomaterials for many different kinds of tissue regeneration as opposed to specializing in just one kind of tissue or implant, according to Webster.
Webster believes Brown stands to benefit from the company because "we disclosed several new ideas to improve implants to Brown in the time I have been here that will be part of the start-up company." However, most of the intellectual property belongs to Purdue, where Webster conducted much of the research.
Undergraduates and graduates will have opportunities to do research at NanoVis, Webster said. "There is extreme interest in graduate students to do research directly related to medical products," he added.
Kevin Burns '08 currently researches with Webster as part of EN 195: "Independent Studies in Engineering."
Burns is working with cartilage cells and "their growth on implant materials that have nanotubes on the surface," he wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Burns wrote that most of the people working in the lab are "growing different types of cells on various surfaces."
Burns wrote that he has enjoyed his research experience with Webster, calling the professor "extremely smart and very well-spoken."
