Cedric Loiret-Bernal, CEO of NanoInk

 
The following interview with Dr. Cedric Loiret-Bernal, CEO of NanoInk, took place at the NanoCommerce/SEMI NanoForum conference in Chicago on November 3, 2005.  It has appeared on nanotechnology.com’s multimedia page, and I have previously blogged some comments about it.  But I am transcribing interviews for my own purposes, so I thought I’d share this one with you.  Previously, I have posted a transcription of an interview with David MacDonald, CEO of Nanomix, from the same conference.
 
 
Edwards:  We’re here at the NanoCommerce conference in Chicago.  I’m going to have a conversation here with Dr. Cedric Loiret Bernal and he is the CEO of NanoInk.  For Nanotechnology.com, I am Steve Edwards, and for the record, I am an independent consultant and I am also the author of The Nanotech Pioneers: Where are they taking us? which will be published next year (it has been published now) by Wiley VCH. 
 
O.K. Dr. uh Cedric, I’ll just call you Cedric.  Cedric, can you give us a little bit about your background and how you came to be with NanoInk?
 
Loiret-Bernal:  Yes, I’m a physician by training.  I’ve also got an MBA from Northwestern University here in Chicago, fifteen years ago.  I’ve always followed new technologies and innovations and I used to work for a biotechnology company that was working on proteins, and proteins are very small biomolecules so it became pretty obvious that nanotechnology would have an impact, and then when I became aware of an opportunity to work for a nanotechnology company in Chicago, and a company that was coming out of Northwestern University that could have tremendous application in the bio-nano world, I didn’t have a minute to waste, and I joined the company about two years ago.
 
Edwards:  O.K., can you give me a little history on the company?  How did it get started?
 
Loiret-Bernal:  The company got started about four years ago based on the research work of Professor (Chad) Mirkin at Northwestern University, and when the technology became strong enough, especially on the IP front, it was a good time for the company to be incorporated.
 
Edwards:  O.K., can you tell me a little bit about dip-pen nanolithography, Dr. Mirkin’s invention?
 
Loiret-Bernal: Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) is basically the ability to use the tip of the atomic force microscope to write at the nanoscale with virtually any molecule on any substrate.  And this is done in ambient conditions; meaning you control the temperature and humidity, and that’s about it.  You can use DPN with platinum, gold, silver and also biomolecules and some of these biomolecules are extremely fragile, such as proteins, antigens, cell receptors, viruses. 
 
Edwards:  Can you also use nanoparticles, like buckyballs, carbon nanotubes?
 
Loiret-Bernal:  We can use carbon nanotubes, buckyballs, we can write with all of these materials, of course.

Edwards:  What are the applications that you see for this technology in industry? 
 
Loiret-Bernal:  Near term, we can use DPN in a nanoscale additive approach to repair photomasks and flat panel display repairs.  These are small niche markets, but what we’re looking at longer term is using DPN for bionano arrays, and deposition of biomolecules.  In the short term, we’re pursuing an application for brand protection, or the ability to help manufacturers of high value items fighting counterfeiting and parallel trade.
 
Edwards:  So this is the pharmaceutical industry you’re addressing, the counterfeit—
 
Loiret-Bernal:  Yes, exactly, because the industry today loses about $25 billion to counterfeiters and diverters, and there’s huge potential liability if people if people get sicker or even die from taking the wrong products.
 
Edwards:  So who came up with this idea?  It’s pretty amazing--
 
Loiret-Bernal:  With my background as a physician and I had a lot of friends on a global basis talk to me about this, so I’ve been always thinking about it for the last twenty years.  It was really finding the right technology to enable the pharmaceutical industry to trace each product at the unit level, meaning I can tell you if this tablet was manufactured yesterday or two months ago in Puerto Rico, in New Jersey, in Singapore or Ireland and where it should be today and what’s the expiration date of the product. 
 
Edwards:  So tell me a little bit about how the counterfeit protection—the encryption—actually works?  What are you going to write on…
 
Loiret-Bernal:  It’s very confidential information because, in fact, most pharmaceutical companies will not allow us to disclose that they are our customers or which products we’re protecting, but the challenge was to be able to accommodate the throughput, meaning millions of tablets being manufactured every day, billions per year in the world.  So we’ve been able to use our technology to accommodate the pharmaceutical specification and requirements.
 
Edwards:  So not only do you have to be able to put the encryption on, you have to be able to read it, too, so…
 
Loiret-Bernal:  Yes, the authentication is also a very confidential process, in fact, something that we’re keeping in house.  Our long term approach to the authentication is to have six centers worldwide, two in the U.S., two in Europe and two in Asia, where any suspicious products could be shipped via FedEx and be able for a full pedigree reading within 24 hours.  So if I go to a pharmacy and seize 10,000 tablets, so they could be received here in Chicago, and within 24 hours I could give you a certificate of authenticity within 24 hours for each tablet.  So it’s very powerful.
 
Edwards:  I guess at this point, the FBI gets involved.  But they’re not going to do it themselves, though…
 
Loiret-Bernal:  We would welcome working closely with various enforcement agencies, definitely.
 
Edwards:  Well, tell me about—you’ve got a product that you’re selling now, right? The Inscriptor system—that’s what you use for nanolithography.
 
Loiret-Bernal:  Exactly.  The Inscriptor is our dedicated instrument to practice dip-pen nanolithography.  The average cost of the instrument is about $165,000; it can go up, there’s options.  We’re selling it mostly through academia on a global basis.  In fact, over 50% of our sales are not in the U.S.
 
Edwards:  So what kinds of scientists are buying these things? 
 
Loiret-Bernal:  We have various chemists, surface materials experts are using it with various inks, I think a big application for the Inscriptor will be the practice of DPN with biomolecules.
 
Edwards:  Tell me a little about the arrays.  I know about the expression arrays, which is what Affymetrix does.  I guess my question is, do we really need more?  Because in a microarray you can already test for any gene in the genome, because there’s only 30,000, right, so you can already get all those.  What do you think nanolithography can do for you?
 
Loiret-Bernal:  I think dip-pen nanolithography can go beyond DNA, because DNA is a very resistant material, but once you want to try write or deposit cells, cell receptors, virus particles, proteins; these are very fragile biomolecules and the ability to use DPN really enables the researcher to do experiments that do not need to be at the nanoscale, they could definitely be at the microscale, but really moving beyond DNA.  Affymetrix is only focused and interested in DNA.
 
Edwards: (Laughing) Well, they’re doing a fine job with DNA…
 
Loiret-Bernal:  Absolutely.
 
Edwards:  Are you already working with pharmaceutical companies on your anti-counterfeiting scheme?
 
Loiret-Bernal:  We already have one customer, soon a second, and we’re targeting five customers next year (2006).  So there’s an adoption curve for any disruptive technology establishing itself into a new market place, and yeah, we’re working hard with the industry and also regulatory authorities to become a standard down the road.
 
Edwards:  So the FDA is encouraging this…
 
Loiret-Bernal:  The FDA is fully aware of our technology.
 
Edwards:  And the photomask repair, you’re talking to semiconductor manufacturers about that?
 
Loiret-Bernal:  Yes, we’re talking to a Japanese company, and they are the most serious partner for us at this stage.
 
Edwards:  I guess we better wrap it up.  Thank you very much for talking with me today.  We’re about to get drowned out anyway (lots of noise in the background).
 
Loiret-Bernal:  Thank you very much.  It was a pleasure.