POTSDAM -- NanoScience Solutions has received a small business innovation grant to expand its nanotechnology research and promote business development in the North Country.

The award from the National Science Foundation, for $149,959, is aimed at using scientific innovation to foster economic development testing ways to measure the mechanical properties of soft materials, such as biomaterials, cells, tissues, polymers, and nanocomposites, and making such measurements many times faster than they can be made now.

NanoScience Solutions is a small company, spun off from research at Clarkson University. The company is working to bring nano-innovations to the marketplace. This work will be done in collaboration with Clarkson.

“Direct investment in our region’s small businesses and job creators lead to growth in local communities,” said Rep. Bill Owens, who announced the NSF award.

“When those job creators also stand on the front lines of scientific advancement, we continue to build off of the already proud tradition St. Lawrence County colleges, universities, and research centers have of innovation and cutting edge technology,” Owens said.

Yuri Liburkin, CEO of Nanoscience Solutions, said the new technology “will add a new dimension to the study of the mechanics of polymers, nanocomposites, biomaterials, cells and human tissue. Necessarily, this will also result in the development and production of cutting edge, commercially viable instruments.”

“The novel technology will enable the measuring of mechanical properties of soft materials with more than 100 times higher resolution and more than 100 times faster than existing instruments,” said Professor Igor Sokolov, the principal investigator of this project at Clarkson University and co-inventor of the patented technology that is the subject of the reviewed award. “This is important for the discovery of novel and safe nanomaterials and for the development of new diagnostic tools for the medicine of tomorrow.”