News of the Week In the meantime, EPA Adminis trator Lee M. Thomas has slowed down or halted cleanup at 57 Superfund sites to conserve Superfund monies. Congress has yet to reau thorize this cleanup law, and its financing mechanism expires Sept. 30. D
Los Alamos to build ion beam research lab A new laboratory for innovative ma terials research is being set up at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The 3500-sq-ft facili ty, called the Ion Beam Materials Research & Technology Laboratory, will cost $1.7 million. It will con tain two major tools for materials research: an ion beam implanter and a 3-MeV accelerator. In ion beam implantation, a highcurrent beam of ions collides with a target material. Ions from the beam actually implant in the target, pro ducing materials that cannot be made by conventional alloying tech niques. The procedure can be used to implant ions of almost any ele ment in the top few layers of a target material. It can be used to make new materials, such as semi conductors with tailored electrical behavior, or as an analytical tool to probe the surface structure of the target material. Although ion beam implantation research has been conducted at Los Alamos for several years, the new facility will bring the laboratory "into the forefront of ion beam ma terials research," say Los Alamos physicists Al Clogston and Carl Maggiore. "The results could be huge industrial spinoffs," they add. The ion implanter is expected to be operating within a few months. The accelerator will take a little longer to put in place—about a year, laboratory researchers estimate. It will have seven beam lines, five for analysis and two others that can be used for deep ion implantation. The new facility is a collabora tive effort of researchers and man agers from several divisions at Los Alamos, including chemistry, phys ics, and materials science and tech nology. D 6
September 9, 1985 C&EN
ΜΓΓ plans bioprocess separations center A new center for bioprocess separa tions research is being established at Massachusetts Institute of Tech nology. The plan is for it to explore new technologies and approaches to meet future downstream needs of the biotechnology industry. Cooperating with MIT in setting up the center is Alfa-Laval, a Swed en-based manufacturer of process equipment, with U.S. operations headquartered in Fort Lee, N.J. The company is supplying state-of-theart equipment for a complete fer mentation plant. The program com plements other biotechnology work at MIT—for example, extending the concept of computer control of fermentation. The center is slated to start up in January. It will operate under the direction of Charles L. Cooney, a professor of chemical and biochem ical engineering at MIT. Among the equipment to be sup plied by Alfa-Laval are a sterilizable high-speed centrifuge, membrane filtration systems, Centritherm lowtemperature evaporator, Bran &
Lubbe cell disruptor, and Sterimedia system for continuous medium ster ilization. The company's Chemap subsidiary will supply a 1500-L pi lot plant fermentation system, a 75-L seed fermenter, and a fully instru mented control system. Among the research areas expect ed to be initiated at the center is an investigation of aggregating agents that selectively aggregate cells, pro teins, lipids, lipopolysaccharides, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. The research will consider use of such agents to enhance sedimenta tion in a centrifuge, filtration effi ciency, whole-broth extraction with organic or biphasic aqueous solvents, and cell disruption. Another expected research area is the study of one of the major problems in the use of membrane filtration—the fouling of ultrafil tration and microporous membranes. The center will explore the effect of fermentation media components on the fouling process and evaluate the addition of chemical agents that might decrease fouling. D
Hybritech biotechnology patent ruled invalid A patent covering one of the most commonly used technologies for monoclonal antibody-based diagnos tic kits has been ruled invalid by a federal judge. The decision, which ends a 17-month patent infringe ment dispute between Hybritech and Monoclonal Antibodies Inc., ap pears to free many companies in the burgeoning monoclonal-based diagnostic field from fear of patent litigation. Judge Samuel Conti of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco ruled that a patent (U.S. 4,376,110) held by Hybritech of San Diego, Calif., pertaining to "sandwich" immuno assays using monoclonals is invalid because it "taught nothing new in the art, the art alleged to be taught was obvious and logical to anyone skilled in the field," and for several other reasons. In a typical "sandwich" immuno assay, one type of antibody attached to a solid substrate binds to a site on an antigen. A solution contain-
ing another antibody labeled with an enzyme or other element is in troduced, and the tagged antibody binds to a different site on the anti gen, in effect "sandwiching" it. The labeled antibodies then can be mea sured to indicate the presence of the antigen being sought in the di agnostic test. Hybritech, the largest producer of such kits, says it may appeal the ruling. The company says the rul ing will not affect its product plans, but concedes it could reduce future revenue from technology licensing. For far smaller Monoclonal Anti bodies (Mountain View, Calif.), the court victory relaxes a heavy strain on finances. The company spent $372,000 on legal defense in secondquarter 1985 alone, a period in which it lost $602,921. According to Gregory Sessler, vice president for finance, the ruling will greatly im prove the company's standing with both the investment community and customers. •
