Some say it's the little things that really count.
R. Bruce Stewart, president of Pasadena-based Arrowhead Research Corp., wouldn't disagree. Arrowhead funds nanotechnology research at universities in exchange for the exclusive option to any useful technology that's developed as a result.
"We might pay a research lab $200,000 a year, but they would also be getting government grants and access to all of the university's equipment,' Stewart explained. "If they come up with something we think we could bring to the commercial market within two years, we'll spin off a company to produce it.'
Nanotechnology, for the uninitiated, is manipulating things down to the molecular level - dealing in units of one billionth.
"The primary uses as of today are for cosmetics, sunscreens and smart pants and shirts,' Stewart said. "Nanoparticles can keep material from wrinkling, and they can also make it water resistant.'
On Monday, Arrowhead announced it is now included in the Merrill Lynch Nanotech Index, an equally-weighted index made up of 26 nanotechnology stocks.
In April of this year, the index began listing on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol "NNZ.'
