News:
Building the ideal research eco-system
“I see my new role as Vice
President (Research Strategy) at NUS, a match-maker to match our
researchers’ interests with opportunities in Singapore and
around the world,” said Prof Seeram. “For researchers to excel,
they need resources, funding, infrastructure, and conducive
research and innovation policies and initiatives so that they
can pursue the kind of research questions they want to.” For a
start, Prof Seeram will be looking to raise the overall quality
and impact of research across all disciplines, before
identifying niche areas to build peaks of excellence. To do
that, he will continue to engage in research work in the
laboratory – to better understand the evolving challenges on the
ground.
http://newshub.nus.edu.sg/ke/0710/articles/pg15.htm
Research Highlights: Problematic
new findings regarding toxicity of silver nanoparticles
Engineered
nanoparticles are rapidly becoming a part of our daily life in the
form of cosmetics, food packaging, drug delivery systems,
therapeutics, biosensors, etc. A number of commercial products such
as wound dressing, detergents or antimicrobial coatings are already
in the market. Although little is known about their bio distribution
and bio activity, especially silver nanoparticles are extensively
used for all kinds of antimicrobial applications. Ultimately, these
nanoparticles end up in the environment during waste disposal.
Largely due to a scarcity of data on the toxicity, intracellular
distribution and fate of silver ions and nanoparticles inside an
organism, regulatory bodies so far have not felt the need to
regulate the use of such materials in commercial products or
disposal of such products.(Nanowerk
Spotlight, published on 6th June; www.nanowerk.com/spotlight).
Please
click for detailed information.
Introduction
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
have been
identified worldwide as the key to unlocking a new generation of
materials and devices with revolutionary properties and
functionalities. The technology has already seen commercial success
in multi-billion dollar industries such as the electronics and
information storage industry, petroleum and chemical industry
and healthcare industry amongst others. The excitement over
nanotechnology derives from the potentials associated with designing
structures with dimensions right down to the fundamental building
blocks of all materials - atoms and molecules. The state of
nanotechnology now is comparable to the state of computer technology
40 years ago; this itself is strong motivation for many institutes
and organisations to embark on nanotechnology research.
While
the impact of nanotechnology has been made in many areas, the
technology is still at its embryonic stage and current applications
of nanotechnology represent the fruition of only the tip of the
nanotechnology iceberg. Therein, lays the challenge in nurturing
research in this field; an infant yet pervasive field with
undisputedly immense promises which have yet to be fully identified.
The
initiative’s approach to the development and promotion of
nanotechnology research is to optimise resources in creating
strategic high impact research while retaining diversity in research
areas. Several core areas of nanotechnology research have been
identified from the University’s existing research. The nanoscience
and nanotechnology platform will build on the strengths of the
faculties and focus on strategic programmes to excel in niche
areas.
Objectives
To develop research human capital and long-term research capabilities
in the strategic field of nanoscience and nanotechnology.
To galvanize and coordinate multidisciplinary research effort (across
departments, faculties and with the RIs) in nanoscience and nanotechnology.
To help set research priorities and directions for high impact nanoscience
and nanotechnology research.
Background
The National University of Singapore(NUS) acknowledges the
global trend that nanotechnology is expected to be a key
technology.
NUS, in tradition of
spearheading cutting-edge research programs, has launched the NUS
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI) to promote this
area of research. The aim of NUSNNI is to initiate and coordinate
long-term nanoscience and engineering research. Our objective is to
achieve fundamental discoveries of novel phenomena, processes and
tools.
To do this, we tie-up
collaborative efforts between various disciplines within the
university faculties and interested research partners.
We provide the necessary support to facilitate efforts by
faculties, researchers and students interested in pursuing this area
of research.
In the
light of the University's commitment to nanoscience and
nanotechnology research, NUSNNI's role to its development and
promotion is to optimise resources and focus on multidisciplinary
strategic programmes.
To develop research human capital and long-term research capabilities
in the strategic field of nanoscience and nanotechnology.