Innovation: The Outer Limits

A Word from the Naysayers

The emergence of nanomaterials is considered inevitable by most experts -- though there is skepticism about nanorobots.

Company Close-Up

SDC Materials in Tempe, Arizona, makes nanomaterials that can fend off bullets that punch through ordinary bulletproof vests. The nanomaterials are to be used in body armor for the U.S. military. Other substances help medical equipment kill bacteria on contact and create special inks that can be printed out as electronic circuits on paper. "If you design the right additive, you can dramatically improve the properties of a material for only a slight increase in cost," says CEO Max Biberger. The company has raised $11 million and posted its first revenue last year.

Brain Enhancement: The End of Stupid

The Big Idea

Intelligence is all about chemicals made and passed around by your brain cells. So why not add more of the right chemicals and boost smarts and memory? Scientists know how to make fruit flies and mice smarter, and efforts to come up with a treatment for Alzheimer's and other neurological disorders are leading to drugs that enhance memory and cognition in humans. Recent insights into learning-oriented brain cells called mirror neurons even hold out the possibility that someday we will have pills that will impart particular types of skills, such as computer programming or business decision making.

Time to Market

Drugs and treatments that improve memory and slow brain decline in patients with Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases are expected within five years. Drugs that make ordinary people smarter could be commonplace within 10 years.

Start-Ups to Watch

At least 40 brain-enhancing drugs are under development, most of them designed to target Alzheimer's. CoMentis, based in South San Francisco, is working on separating the brain-boosting powers of nicotine from its addictive and other unhealthy side effects. Helicon Therapeutics, in San Diego, is working on a drug that can help convert short-term memories into long-term ones. Also in San Diego, Ceregene is developing a treatment for decaying brain cells that works via an injection of a harmless virus infused with a protein that keeps such cells functional.

A Word from the Naysayers

Brain wonder drugs have a long and discouraging history, as far back as Freud's touting of cocaine. The drugs under study today may turn out to have unacceptable side effects -- or they may just not do all that much for most people, which has been the case with several promising Alzheimer's treatments so far, including the much ballyhooed Aricept. What's more, the FDA will probably approve neurodrugs only for people with serious disorders, not for those of us who merely feel a bit off our game. On the other hand, that didn't limit the availability of Prozac, notes Casey Lynch, managing director of the market strategy firm NeuroInsights. "Markets tend to be expandable in psychiatry," she says. "Once there's a good drug for the condition, a lot of people suddenly seem to have the disorder."

Company Close-Up

Researchers at Accera, in Broomfield, Colorado, believe that in some forms of impairment, brain cells are actually starving for glucose, the basic food of cells. The answer could be as simple as finding an alternative food source for brain cells. Accera's drug, Ketasyn, aims to fill the bill. The treatment has made it through initial clinical trials; now, the company hopes to speed the drug's time to market by labeling Ketasyn a medical food. Physicians prescribe medical foods, but they are less tightly regulated than drugs and normally don't require large trials, which means the stuff could be on the market as soon as this year. The company has raised $12 million and is said to be looking for another $30 million to build a sales and marketing organization.

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