Shrink Nanotechnologies Launches Subsidiary to Commercialize Rapid Prototyping SystemShrink Nanotechnologies Launches Subsidiary to Commercialize Rapid Prototyping System

Nanotechnology specialist Shrink Nanotechnologies Inc. (Carlsbad, CA) has announced the formation of a subsidiary, Shrink Chips LLC. The new venture will focus on the commercialization of what it trumpets as 'next-generation biotechnology research tools.'

Commercialization efforts will focus on the company's patent-pending ShrinkChip rapid prototyping system (RPS), which facilitates the inexpensive manufacture of microfluidic chips and lab-on-a-chip devices. Available as a desktop-size platform, the system is suited for use by R&D and commercial organizations.

"Shrink believes that companies [that] use Shrink's RPS solutions for initial testing, prototyping, and small-scale production designs will benefit from increased design flexibility with significant cost reduction," according to the company.

The company's platform is based on the innovative work of Michelle Khine, a biomedical engineer, while she was at the University of California Merced. As MPMN noted in an editorial last year, Khine, lacking research funds, experimented with the development of microfluidic devices by getting creative with the children's toy, Shrinky Dinks. The low-cost (and whimsical) achievement of producing a microfluidic device from a popular children's toy served as the inspiration for Shrink Nanotechnologies' technology platform.

Read more about Khine's ability to turn Shrinky Dinks into sophisticated channels from last year's MPMN editorial or learn more about how microfluidics could impact the future of healthcare in MPMN's June/July cover story, "Channeling Microfluidic Devices into Point-of-Care Diagnostics."