LIMS to get hot as Nano gets BIG!
LIMS to get hot as Nano gets BIG!
Prasanna Venkatesh
LIMS Consultant, Satyam Computer Services Ltd.,
Email – prasanna2211@gmail.com
Have you ever fantasized what it would look like ‘playing with wild fire’ or ‘making mountain from a mole’? If the response is overwhelmingly negative, the field of nanotechnology can give you some answers. Nanotechnology is a field of science that is garnering strength as we make new strides towards innovation and technology in preparation for the future.
Nanotechnology
The word ‘Nano’ (Greek: Dwarf) refers to a particle size of one billionth of a meter (10-9). Nanotechnology is a science whose unifying theme is to create, control and commodify matter on atomic or molecular dimensions. Particles of atomic sizes exhibit transcendental characteristics and the field of nanotechnology vies to leverage this unusual phenomenon.
Nanotechnology holds the key for futuristic products in the manufacturing arena. It embraces the notion that the products we use can be much lighter, stronger, and less expensive and have more precision. Nanotechnology has already begun its voyage, arguably a emphatic one, in expanding its horizons to a number of industry segments – nanomedicine, nanoelectronics, nanotubes and molecular manufacturing to name a few.
Products
Nanotechnology, as it blossoms and matures, will leave a mark on almost all innovations that the world is waiting to witness. The products of nanotechnology have already started to proliferate in the market space, some of them are:
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# |
Industry |
Products/Applications |
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1 |
Building Products |
Paint, Glass, Wood |
|
2 |
Textile and fabric |
Anti bacterial textile, water/stain repellent |
|
3 |
Medical and Health |
Drugs, health care products |
|
4 |
Automotive |
Automotive parts, glass surfaces, paint |
|
5 |
Food |
Food ingredients, supplements |
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6 |
Consumer Products |
Cleaners, disinfectants |
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7 |
Cosmetics |
Anti-ageing, skin care |
|
8 |
Electronics |
Electronic discs, telecommunication devices |
Product Safety
Having glorified the abilities of nanotechnology, let us focus on the colossal trick that it might unleash on us. While the efficacy of the products of nanotechnology draws attention, the down side may be its safety. The simple fact that nanotechnology is not a time tested technology for mass producing goods is the foremost point which would prompt us to distance ourselves from it.
The potential danger of nanotechnology lies in how the nano particles might interact with the environment and more importantly, the human body. There is no sufficient evidence or documentation to support the safety aspects of the products of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is in preparation to be a high flier technique for product design for a simple and straight forward reason. The particles at nano-scale behave differently than their larger counterparts and this change in particle behavior can be exploited favorably to produce innovative products. There is every chance that its boon may one day turn out to be its pit fall.
Let’s see how. The substance ‘silicon’ is used to make many electronic devices such as transistors, computer chips etc. The chemical behavior and toxicity properties of silicon are well studied and adequately documented. Nevertheless, it has been discovered that the nano-silicon which is legally categorized as regular silicon behave in ways unlike silicon, making the classification a potentially dangerous one. Such is the scenario with many nano particles. It claims for a stronger attention on testing the products of nanotechnology.
There is also an immediate need to re-visit the government policies such that there are separate regulations laid out for particles of regular size (bigger than nano) and nano particles belonging to the same element (say silicon, graphite etc).
LIMS in the nano world
LIMS may be presented with a himalayan opportunity as nanotechnology spreads its reach. LIMS can do to the nanotech world what it has done to the pharmaceutical world – improve efficiency, increase laboratory productivity and assist testing in laboratories.
LIMS has always embraced new trends, both gracefully and methodically, incorporating the emerging business needs and process workflows. The nanotech industry will have its own unique way of carrying out its operations – in research, product design and development and manufacturing. There is a need to start studying these workflows early during its evolution. This will ensure that the LIMS industry is prepared enough to present with a practical solution to address the testing needs of nanotechnology when a critical demand is reached.
A COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) LIMS for nanotechnology is not a distant dream. The learning and experience from pharmaceutical, manufacturing, brewing industry etc. is readily available to be leveraged for the COTS LIMS for nanotechnology.
There is potential to customize the already available COTS LIMS to incorporate a suite of functionality, specifically for the nanotechnology industry, ranging from the research and development, product aggregation, quality control, environmental monitoring and more. Building new workflows in LIMS, integrating the new workflows with the existing ones is also an obvious possibility.
The LIMS industry is poised to absorb the new the laboratory demands that the nanotechnology sector will bring in its coffer. Now the question is, how soon?
