The Adama Innovations team (left to right): Dr Graham Cross, Declan Scanlan and Neal O'Hara
Adama Innovations, an early stage nanoscience research company, has been given a major boost in the form of €750,000 in seed funding to scale up production of its first product, a nanoscale diamond probe.
These diamonds are commonly used in a process known as atomic force microscopy (AFM), which images, measures, and manipulates matter in high-tech manufacturing.
Spun out from Trinity College Dublin’s (TCD) AMBER labs last year by Adama Innovations’ co-founder Dr Graham Cross, this latest investment marks the company’s second investment in 12 months. Last year, Adama Innovations was selected to receive almost €400,000 in funding from the European Commission’s FP7 FaBiMed project, which aims to fund nanoscience research to develop advanced manufacturing techniques for medical devices.
An image of Adama’s precision-machined diamond probe measuring just 150 atoms wide at the apex. Image via Adama Innovations
As part of this project, Adama Innovations is examining how this micro-patterning could be used in moulds and coatings for the fabrication of medical devices, increasing their capability and reducing the cost of manufacture.
Speaking of this latest round of investment, Declan Scanlan, managing director of Adama Innovations, said, “This investment is great news for Adama Innovations. Almost anything that is solid can be analysed by an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). This includes cancer cells, viruses, plastic composites, metals, ceramics and biological surfaces.
“The AFM allows researchers, scientists and engineers to look at the surface of objects at the atomic level, which offers benefits to the medical devices and pharmaceutical industries, and cancer research, among others.”
