(July 9, 2015, Scripps Institution of Oceanography UC San Diego) – Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego researchers have developed a novel technology for studying and characterizing nanoparticles. This technology, called MANTA for Multi-sizing Advanced Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis, will be commercially available through MANTA Instruments, a new company formed by way of a collaborative effort among Scripps researchers, the Triton Technology Fund, and local incubator program EvoNexus. The company is located in the Golden Triangle area of San Diego. This collaboration highlights the ongoing contribution of Scripps to cutting-edge research, as well as the importance of such partnerships to the overall competitiveness of San Diego’s entrepreneurship industry.
Dariusz Stramski, head of the Ocean Optics Research Lab associated with Scripps’s Marine Physical Laboratory, along with his co-workers Kuba Tatarkiewicz, Rick Reynolds, and Monette Karr, set out to create a transformative device that would address the limitations of existing nanoparticle measuring tools– an instrument which would illuminate and detect smaller (dimmer) and larger (brighter) nanoparticles at the same time, hence allowing the researchers to accurately determine the concentration and size of all nanoparticles in a given sample.
In 2011, Stramski and his team received initial funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF award OCE-1126870) for their project, with additional support from Scripps Oceanography. Now, after receiving support from UC San Diego von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center advisor and current MANTA Instruments CEO Rick Cooper, as well as the Triton Technology Fund, they hope to make their instrument commercially available through MANTA Instruments.