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Santa Barbara, CA, 10 December 2002
Innovative Micro Technology (IMT) announces that
it has been awarded $1.8 million from the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army to develop a next generation
cell purification technology based on recent advances in micro-electromechanical
systems (MEMS). The purpose of this award, part of DARPA's Engineered
Tissue Constructs program, is to develop a high-speed system for
purification of human blood stem cells, as part of DARPA's goal
to develop an ex-vivo immune system.
According to Dr. John Foster, IMT's CEO, "Using MEMS technology,
we can significantly improve cell purification processing. We are
excited that DARPA has recognized the great potential of this project.
The device to be developed under this grant incorporates massively-parallel
MEMS devices to rapidly and easily purify cells for therapeutic
and research applications. This is enabling technology for treating
patients with cell therapy."
The potential outcome of this DARPA project is the development of
an effective tissue engineering approach to generate an immune system
outside of the body as a test bed for developing protections against
agents of bio-terrorism.
The US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity is the awarding
and administering acquisition office, Cooperative Agreement No.
DAMD17-02-2-0067. The content of the information does not necessarily
reflect the position or the policy of the Government, and no official
endorsement should be inferred.
About Innovative Micro Technology
Located in Santa Barbara, CA, Innovative Micro Technology (IMT)
is a leading prototyping and sub-micron 6" wafer manufacturing
services provider for MEMS, with particular strengths in design
for manufacturability, high-volume manufacturing and metrology/test.
IMT features both bulk and surface MEMS, including RF, optotelecommunications,
biomedical, biotechnology, DSL switching, inertial measurement,
and other devices. Contact Monte Heaton: Phone (805) 681-2800; FAX
(805) 967-2677, email monte@imtmems.com or visit www.imtmems.com.
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