Advanced Material Development winning new fans with university nanotech research

What it does

Advanced Material Development (AMD) is a private company that invests in and develops applications based on its proprietary nanomaterial platform technologies.

The company is developing intellectual property by funding and advising material science university research groups, while also collaborating with government and business partners to solve challenges in industries such as defence, aerospace, automotive, retail, RFID, printed electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

AMD is currently collaborating with the University of Texas at Austin in the US, and the universities of Sussex and Surrey in the UK, which have teams currently working on conductively optimized graphite nano-material and other technologies.

The company aims to present its IP to market through a variety of profitable commercial arrangements, with its patent-protected liquid processing technology underpinning the development of a variety of applications in key areas including sensors, flexible electronics, functional coatings, security (including anti-counterfeiting) and structural health monitoring.

In March, AMD moved up a gear when it brought in IP heavy-hitter Dr Anthony Thomson as chief executive of life science subsidiary CoM3D.

Thomson, who will also advise on IP commercialisation and join AMD’s advisory panel, has held numerous roles in the technology, automotive, health, capital markets and university sectors, most recently managing an exit to US giant Qualcomm.

This was followed by another high-level appointment when Dr Izabela Jurewicz, a teaching fellow in soft matter science at the University of Surrey and principal investigator of AMD’s work at the university, joined the company’s advisory panel in April and then took a full-time position in October.

Jurewicz is also a former researcher for AMD’s chief scientific advisor, Professor Alan Dalton, and maintains close links with his team at the University of Sussex.

How’s it doing?

The company’s partnership with the University of Texas at Austin, which is focused on pharmaceutical nanotechnology and is formalised through CoM3D, involves new ways of producing and delivering drugs to patients, including via 3D printing personalised medicines.

AMD has so far led a funding round for two projects, one of which expands into the current fight against viral pathogens like coronavirus.

Pharmaceutical nanotechnology enjoyed an explosion of interest in 2020, including in the company’s research into a new treatment system that aims to deliver drugs directly into the lungs of people suffering from COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.

The company is also talking with potential partners in the RFID antenna industry as progress continues to be made in developing its highly conductive graphite-based inks.

Over the autumn there have been several developments with partners in industry, with September seeing AMD brought in by QinetiQ to join its WSRF research contract with the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

In November, there was an extension to ongoing nanomaterials work with the United States Army Research Lab on an electromagnetic emissions camouflage system using a novel metamaterial-based frequency reflector, while US industrial and aerospace giant Honeywell International also brought AMD in to help develop new moulded materials.