Nanbiotech is the sector which deals with Nanotechnology, and with advanced Bio-technology. Nanotechnology offers huge potential in improving Solar Energy technologies, energy storage, in pollution control, and in the production of a wide range of new materials such as Aerogels which are the lightest materials ever made, and also the best thermal insulators known. We hope in the future to be able to utilise Nanotechnology in a large number of different ways in the furtherance of our aims, and will actively watch the sector for developments useful to our mission. Also we will seek to develop our own Nanotechnology capability in areas most beneficial to achieving our aims.

‘Both nanotechnology and biotechnology are experiencing explosive growth and are utilised in a rapidly increasing number of products.’

Advanced Bio-technology such as the cultivation of plant and animal cells in tissue culture for the production of useful materials such as pharmaceuticals and medical diagnostic antibodies can avoid the need for energy intensive traditional manufacturing techniques, and may offer the possibility of “growing oil” in a bio-reactor using cells rather than whole plants. Similar technology will allow very fast propagation of plants which might otherwise be at risk of extinction, and allow the mass propagation of trees for our silvicultural program. Spinoffs are likely to result in significant profits which can be reinvested in our primary goal of arresting climate change.

Nanbiotech Sector Overview
The role of our Nanbiotech Sector is to use biotechnology such as tissue culture, and genetic engineering to assist with the fight against climate change, and to develop more benign systems for synthesising chemicals such as those used in medication. In some cases, a plant is cultivated for a particular high value chemical produced only in a small part of the plant; for example, in traditional medicine salicylate was extracted from willow bark by using it to make tea.

‘Manipulation of carbon molecules at the nanometer scale is offering the chance of more efficient photovoltaic panels, better catalysts and more efficient ways to store energy.’

If we wanted to make salicylate from willow bark cells, we would cultivate the cells in a fermenter, preferably having first set up conditions, or genetically engineered the cells so that they excrete Salicylate into the culture media. This allows high levels of productivity at low extraction cost. A further advantage being that rare plants are less likely to be overexploited in order to extract medicinal or other high value chemicals. Eventually it may be possible to use either photosynthetic cells in tissue culture, or synthetic chemicals mimicking the photosynthetic process to turn water and CO2 into liquid fuels, directly excreting synthetic petroleum, methanol, ethanol, butanol, or bio-diesel into their culture media. In this way, photosynthesis can produce transport fuels directly at a high level of efficiency.

As we intend to bank a large variety of plant cells for potential future uses, we will as a by product of this storage hold an extensive gene bank of a huge range of species. This will allow for the possibility of propagating rare, endangered, or recently extinct plants to assist with re-establishing the species in the wild. Our technologies will be useful in the bio-remediation of contaminated land, and to the destruction of a wide range of dangerous chemicals. These techniques will also be applicable for producing food in areas where the climate is not very conducive to traditional agriculture. Our Nanbiotech Sector will also carry out research into novel applications for C60, otherwise known as Buckmaster Fullerene, and the closely related buckytubes.

These are forms of carbon which can be adjusted for very useful properties such as strength and stiffness greater than carbon fibre, novel catalysts, materials for storing hydrogen, materials for ultra capacitors with energy storage similar to a lithium-ion battery for far greater power and efficiency and an indefinite life, and new high efficiency photovoltaic materials suitable for printing onto a variety of substrates. These technologies are only a few of the applications which can be currently projected, however, progress in the area is rapid, and a great many new applications are sure to emerge.