Millennial Scientific, a provider of enabling microbeads for extraction, purification, and chromatography separation of chemicals and biochemical, has been chosen as one of the nine finalists for the Pittcon 2020 excellence award. Millennial’s NanoPak-C, a suite of all-carbon stationary phase materials that will be launched during Pittcon 2020, was selected for this award. NanoPak-C’s key differentiator is a novel proprietary fabrication technology that is the only process able to produce scalable all-carbon spherical microbeads using various carbon sources such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, fullerenes, graphite, carbon black, or activated carbon. The technology is funded through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 1 & 2 grants from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and SBIR Phase 1 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
A blue-chip panel of experts consisting of thought leaders across academia, industry, and trade media selected this year’s finalists. Judges evaluated entries based on ingenuity, creativity, implementation, and outcomes. The principal criterion was the projected impact the product will have on the industry and the world.
"We are thrilled that the blue-chip panel of experts recognized our NanoPakC NanoPak-C All Carbon Stationery Phase Materials as a true innovation and acknowledged its value proposition and impact for Pharmaceutical Separation and purification applications.” Said Dr. Balaji Sitharaman, founder and president of Millennial Scientific. “Our customer discovery efforts indicate a significant unmet underserved need in the separation of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
Examples of commercialization opportunities include the separation of highly polar molecules and improved selectivity for closely related large molecule compounds. We found that the separation process is restricted to specific pH and temperature ranges. Additionally, the trends toward automation of laboratory operations to increase efficiency with high-throughput experimentation continue to create commercial opportunities for affordable, long-lasting separation systems with lower noxious solvent consumption. NanoPak-C aims to improve core laboratory tool performance, reduce costs significantly, and accelerate many important discoveries and product development.”