02/15/2001

By Doug Bedell / The Dallas Morning News

At the Richardson headquarters of Zyvex, James Von Ehr and a team of scientists are working to make science fiction a reality.

Mr. Von Ehr – Zyvex founder, president and CEO – and his team are building microscopic robots that can rearrange molecules into new structures superior to nature's own creations.

Zyvex's first projects include a process that produces structures stronger than steel. Ultimately, the company plans to use nanotechnology, this "science of small," to create supercomputers more powerful than the total of all computers built to date. And, says Mr. Von Ehr, mini-appliances have incredible potential for developing advanced medical devices, fighting disease – even stopping aging.

Mr. Von Ehr will detail his visions for nanotechnology during the Third Friday Tech Luncheon series Friday at the Omni Richardson Hotel, 701 E. Campbell Road, Richardson.

Here, Mr. Von Ehr gives a preview of his amazing, sometimes unsettling new technology and its implications.

DMN: What is your central message to people who may not even know what nanotechnology means for our future?

VON EHR: Over the next decade or two, we're going to see major changes in the way we do manufacturing. We're now at a point where we can imagine taking the final step of manufacturing at the molecular level, the atomic level, where we put every molecule in its place. That's going to open up a world of new materials, lighter than aluminum and stronger than steel. This will be the first change the public will start to see.

DMN: Are medical applications – making tiny instruments that can correct genetic defects, for example – close at hand?

VON EHR: The Holy Grail of nanotechnology, I think, are some of the medical things we should be able to do at some point. The simplest ones may just be diagnostic tools to monitor outside the body what's going on inside.

Our current technology is very crude in many respects. When a surgeon goes in, the knife is far bigger than the cells. It shreds up the cells and cuts them and damages them. With nanotechnology, we can make much more subtle and sophisticated tools that are small enough to actually go into the cell and work inside the cell to repair problems.

DMN: So you envision humans finally reaching the fountain of youth with nanotechnology?

VON EHR: In principle, we think it's possible to go in and cure all the diseases we're aware of, to fix mutations such as cancer to repair those cells and, possibly, to eliminate the damage caused by aging and restore that cell to the point it was when it was young and healthy. ... We're talking what, at this point frankly, are a lot of fantasies.

DMN: Do you feel like a pioneer?

VON EHR: Pretty much, yeah.

DMN: Do you feel like you're out there all alone?

VON EHR: Not as much as we used to. Although I still find when I talk about what we're trying to do, most people have a problem with believing we can pull it off.

DMN: What are the first products you're trying to turn out with Zyvex.

VON EHR: We're starting to build the machine that will allow us to explore, allowing us to take and place tiny, little parts that may have some application in medical procedures. Maybe little surgical devices. Maybe something that could function at the end of a catheter that could be stuck into your body. It could be a probe. It could go in and maybe clean out arteries, maybe do microsurgery, being controlled by the surgeon. Maybe it will have little fingers inside the body so it can cut and sew.

Right now, we have the ability to make things down to a couple microns in size – about one-fiftieth the diameter of a hair. That's still thousands of times bigger than where we're headed.

DMN: This process is just starting, then. And you're pointed at making these micro devices even smaller?

VON EHR: We need to talk to some more doctors right now to really know what it's possible to do. But when I think about what we can do at the micro scale that's useful to the world now, that's where we're starting. As we go toward the molecular scale, we think we can spin products out along the way. ... We have technology coming down the pike that we think will be useful to the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and the military in looking for chemical warfare agents.

DMN: Doesn't the public get rather worried when you start talking about this sort of stuff? It can be upsetting to imagine all the changes nanotechnology can bring, both good and bad.

VON EHR: If you talk about what the bad guys might do with it, the public has a right to be scared. But I think it's really important that we also talk about curing cancer and diseases, such as AIDS and Alzheimers, and halting or reversing the aging process.

It's not all just a dark side; it's not all just a bright side. It's a balance. And, on balance, I would love to have a cure for diseases and aging. I'm not getting any younger. I'm 50. And, as some say, we may be the last generation to die. That's a real motivating factor for us. We're working hard to make it happen in our lifetime.

For information about admission prices or to make reservations for the Third Friday Tech Luncheon, call 972-238-8998.