Starpharma today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Dendritic Nanotechnologies Inc (DNT) will develop its proprietary technology to purify water following the award of a contract with the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program.
The US$1.3m DoD contract was awarded to DNT and the Central Michigan University Research Corporation to develop water remediation technology using DNT’s Priostar™ dendrimer-based nanotechnology.
The dendrimer is to act as a sponge to soak up toxic chemicals from ground-water, leaving the water purer and useable. The ability of a dendrimer to pack a large functional surface area into a small particle makes it an appropriate choice for the application.
Successful completion of this project, which was sponsored by U.S. Senator Carl Levin and Congressman David Camp, will provide DoD with a new generation cost effective, environmentally acceptable water remediation system. Starpharma retains commercialisation rights to technology developed under the program.
Starpharma CEO Jackie Fairley commented: “Uncontaminated water is already in short supply in many regions throughout the world and increased water stress resulting from climate change is expected to make things worse. Whilst this is a non-core area for Starpharma it addresses an important global issue and is a commercially relevant application of dendrimers which may yield royalty income in the future.”