Here are the seven projects selected in the Spring 2005 round of the Deshpande Center grant program.

New Projects

ANGELA BELCHER AND DAVID CLAPHAM: Nanotechnology process enables fast discovery of ion channel-targeting drugs - This nanotechnology-based approach to monitoring key proteins could open up new drug markets worth billions.

VLADIMIR BULOVIC: Novel light-emitting devices take flat-panel display market to next level - A quantum-dot-based light-emitting device that lowers manufacturing costs and dramatically improves picture quality could accelerate growth of the $35-billion market for flat-panel displays.

RUTLEDGE ELLIS-BEHNKE: Realizing modern medicine's dream of immediate hemostasis - A new transparent compound that not only stops bleeding instantly but can be operated through and breaks down harmlessly within the body has the potential to revolutionize surgery and trauma care.

PAULA HAMMOND: Smarter drug delivery via tunable implant coatings - "Smart" drug coatings that can conform to medical devices of any shape (e.g. stents, bone implants, pills, and microparticles) and that allow the release of multiple drugs at varied times would make multiple surgical procedures and drug-dosing schedules a thing of the past.

TIMOTHY JAMISON: From bulk compounds to fine chemicals in one step - A one-step process of coupling bulk chemicals to produce fine chemicals creates a new economic equation for the multi-trillion-dollar fine chemicals industry and one of its main customers: pharmaceuticals.

SAMIR NAYFEH: Short-warp weaving for fast-changing fashions - This novel method of weaving cloth could disrupt the upscale apparel market by enabling clothing production schedules to meet rapidly changing demand.

Renewals

FRANCESCO STELLACCI: Contact printing - bridging nano-lithography with industrial production - Much in the same way the printing press revolutionized the creation of reading matter, this nano-contact printing technology enables mass production of nano devices currently built one at a time.