Nanotechnology Victoria

Nanotechnology Victoria Ltd (NanoVic) operates in Australia with the support of Austrade, an arm of the Australian government, and was established to help focus attention on the field of nanoscience research. Its aim was to help exploit the commercial potential of the field, especially in relation to “improved drug delivery, medical imaging, and diagnostic systems.” To achieve this, it established two separate entities with different roles.

The first of these was Interstitial NS, a specialist development company “for novel therapeutic nanoparticle delivery systems.” It concentrated on the manufacture of existing pharmaceutical products, improving on the processes, and formulating ways to improve new pharmaceutical products and vaccines. The other entity was Quintain NS, which focused on researching the development of nanoengineered contrast media for the improvement of products used in the medical imaging market. This would assist medical personnel, especially radiographers, in diagnosing and monitoring diseases. Both of these entities were active in seeking additional investment capital and joint research projects.

NanoVic has reported some initial successes. A number of projects include research into therapeutic nanoparticle delivery, through Interstitial NS, with plans to transform the nature of the transdermal delivery of nanostructured therapeutics and vaccines. Nanotechnology Victoria is collaborating with Monash University on a new product for adults and children suffering from diabetes, and improving inhalers for delivery of medications.

This has led to the development by Paul Charlwood and colleagues of a prototype pulmonary inhaler that could have greatly improve insulin dosing. As Charl-wood said, “the core of the nanotechnology development and inhaler design was to reduce the complexity, risk, and discomfort involved with injecting insulin for the world's growing number of insulin-reliant diabetics.” Although the product has not been finalized, the prototype was exhibited in Boston in May 2007, and received much positive attention, both for the device itself and for other projects funded by NanoVic. Quintain NS has led many advances on medical imaging using the products qBright, to detect prostate cancer, and qTrack, to detect vulnerable plaques.