Berkeley Lab Wins Three Prestigious R&D 100 Awards for Technology Advances (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Thu Jul 7 14:21:14 2005 Pacific Time

Berkeley Lab Wins Three Prestigious R&D 100 Awards for Technology
Advances
http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050707.135603&time=14%2021%20PDT&year=2005&public=0

       BERKELEY, Calif., July 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists at the
Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have
garnered three R&D 100 Awards, R&D Magazine's picks for the 100 most
technologically significant new products of 2005. This is the first
time since 1992 that Berkeley Lab has captured three of the prestigious
awards in a single year, bringing the Lab's total of these "Oscars of
Invention" to 37.

       The 2005 awards go to:

       - The Neural Matrix CCD, created by members of the Life Sciences,
Accelerator and Fusion Research, and Engineering divisions, being
further developed in tandem with co-award winners Cellular
Bioengineering, Inc. (CBI) of Honolulu, Hawaii -- the only
state-of-the-art technology for patterning and monitoring networks of
growing neurons;

       - The Optical Sound Restoration System, from the Physics Division
-- the first "touchless" technology for restoring early sound recordings
on metal foil, wax, plastic, and other media, regardless of scratches,
warping, mold, and other effects of age;

       - Ion Mobility Analysis, developed by members of the Life
Sciences and Engineering divisions -- providing fast, inexpensive,
accurate measurement and counting of individual lipoprotein particles
to assess the risk of coronary artery disease.

       "These awards demonstrate that DOE scientists and researchers are
hard at work developing the technologies of the future," said Secretary
of Energy Samuel W. Bodman. "In the past, breakthroughs like these have
played an important role in both our economic and national security."

       "We're looking for products and processes that can change
people's lives for the better, improve the standard of living for large
numbers of people, save lives, promote good health, and clean up the
environment," say the editors of R&D Magazine, which has handed out R&D
100 Awards annually since 1963.

       "Two of this year's winning technologies have already been
licensed by the Technology Transfer Department to companies that are
working to bring them to market and benefit the public," says Pam
Seidenman of Berkeley Lab's Technology Transfer Department, which aided
the scientists in crafting the complex and demanding applications, "and
the third may be deployed by the Library of Congress."

       The Neural Matrix CCD:

       Initially designed to help scientists learn how neurons in the
human nervous system communicate with each other, the Neural Matrix CCD
is the first step in creating combined biological and electronic chip
implants that can provide neural networks of living, interconnected
nerve cells for testing drugs and sensing toxins for homeland security
-- and, someday, restoring the use of limbs and eyesight and improved
mental functions in patients.

       In 2004, a team of scientists and engineers led by Eleanor
Blakely and Ian Brown, including Kathy Bjornstad, Jim Galvin, Othon
Monteiro, and Chris Rosen, developed a technique for growing the first
large arrays of networked neurons on the prepared optical surface of a
charge-coupled device (CCD). Diamond-like carbon deposited on the
optical surface of the CCD is patterned in fine detail, then coated by
a continuous layer of cell-culture collagen, and finally seeded with
neurons. The coated CCDs now have millions of individual sensors that
can record changes in electrical potential from individual nerve cells
in real time while precisely mapping each neuron's activity within the
neural network.

       Development of the Neural Matrix CCD is now under way in
collaboration with Cellular Bioengineering Incorporated (CBI), a life
sciences company focusing on the bioengineering of tissues for the
replacement and repair of injured and diseased organs; CBI researchers
Amy Weintraub, Ryan Littrell, Kevin T.C. Jim, Kevin Chinn, Leslie
Isaki, and Geming Lui have contributed. Current research focuses on
detection of neurotoxins and is funded by the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA).

       The Optical Sound Restoration System:

       Since 1877, when Thomas Edison recorded "Mary had a Little Lamb"
on a tinfoil cylinder, recordings on diverse media like foil and wax
cylinders, shellac and vinyl discs, acetate sheets, and plastic
dictation belts have captured an incredible range of material: the
singing voice of Enrico Caruso; the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay;
the lost language of Ishi, the last Yahi Indian; the words of
historical figures like Alfred Lord Tennyson and Amelia Earhart. Many
of these can no longer be played and are too delicate for traditional
restoration.

       By adapting methods for measuring particle tracks in high-energy
physics experiments, Carl Haber and Victor Fadeyev created a noncontact
method for restoring damaged and fragile mechanical recordings. Without
ever touching the cylinder, disk, or belt, their technology produces
two- or three-dimensional digital images of its surface, which can be
computer analyzed to reconstruct the original recorded sound in high
fidelity.

       Archivists estimate that 40 percent of the millions of recordings
in the world's major sound archives -- including the U.S. Library of
Congress, the British National Library, the New York Public Library,
the Edison National Historical Site in New Jersey (with its trove of
cylinders), and historical archives in major universities and private
collections -- could benefit from restoration with the Berkeley Lab
technology.

       Ion Mobility Analysis:

       For over fifty years, standard tests that measure levels of total
cholesterol, "bad" low-density lipoproteins (LDL), "good" high-density
lipoproteins (HDL), and triglycerides have been used to evaluate the
risk of heart disease. But half the heart attacks in the U.S. each year
strike people with normal cholesterol levels. The distribution of size,
quantity, and type of lipoprotein particles -- which are much more
various than standard tests can account for -- provides a far better
indicator of whether or not someone is at risk.

       Henry Benner, Ron Krauss, and Patricia Blanche developed ion
mobility analysis to measure the size distribution and count the number
of individual particles in all classes of lipoproteins in a single
analytical step. The technology measures the drift of charged,
aerosolized lipoproteins as they are dragged through air by the force
of an electric field. Charge and drift velocity separate the particles
by weight and size. The sorted particles travel to a detector for
counting.

       Ion mobility analysis is faster and potentially less expensive
than current technologies and is likely to be used more frequently in
the evaluation and management of risk for cardiovascular disease. Its
ability to study the entire range of lipoprotein particles with
unrivalled accuracy will make it a valuable tool for both clinical and
research labs.

       The R&D 100 Award-winning technologies were nominated by Berkeley
Lab's Technology Transfer Department. All winners of the 2005 award will
receive a plaque at R&D Magazine's formal awards banquet in Chicago on
October 20.

       - - - -

       CONTACT: Pam Seidenman, Berkeley Lab Media Relations,
510-486-6461, psseidenman at lbl.gov

       NOTE TO EDITORS: An html version of this release, with images, is
available at
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/TT-R&Dawards-2005.html.

       ABOUT BERKELEY LAB: Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy
national laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts
unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of
California. Visit our website at www.lbl.gov.

       ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

       For more on the Neural Matrix CCD, visit
http://www.lbl.gov/Tech-Transfer/techs/lbnl1888.html .

       For more on the Optical Sound Restoration System, visit
http://www.lbl.gov/Tech-Transfer/techs/lbnl1855.html .

       For more on Ion Mobility Analysis, visit
http://www.lbl.gov/tt/success_stories/lbnl1730.html .

       For more about Berkeley Lab's Technology Transfer Department,
visit http://www.lbl.gov/Tech-Transfer/ .

       Cellular Bioengineering, Inc. (CBI) may be contacted at
info at cellularbioengineering.com.

       For more about R&D Magazine and the R&D 100 Awards, visit
http://www.rdmag.com/default.aspx .

      Media Contact: Pam Seidenman, 510-486-6461, psseidenman at lbl.gov