MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- More than 160 investors and nanotechnology professionals gathered at the NASA-Ames Conference Center in Mountain View, Calif., on Friday for the "Nano Ventures Funding and Partnering Conference I."

The purpose of the event was to provide a forum for start-up and early stage nanotechnology companies seeking funding and joint venture alliances. The meeting was sponsored by nanoSIG, and the event had support from the NASA-Ames Center for Nanotechnology, the NASA-Ames Commercial Technology Office and the NASA-Ames Research Park.

Caroline Blake, NASA-Ames Commercial Technology Division Chair opened the event and welcomed attendees and the lineup of 22 presenting companies. Dr. Meyya Meyyappan, director of the NASA-Ames Center for Nanotechnology, also addressed the gathering, discussing "Nanotechnology and its Implications." Meyyappan explained that the NASA Ames Center for Nanotechnology was formed in 1997 and currently has a multlidisciplinary team of 50 scientists, with an annual budget of $10 million.

NanoSIG's President Bo Varga chaired the remainder of the day's proceedings, in which early stage and start-up firms provided technical information and business plans to the gathering.

Familiar names to NanotechPlanet readers on the agenda included NanotechWatch veterans Molecular Nanosystems and Nanocrystals Imaging. Molecular Nanosystems' CEO and co-founder Xihong Deng explained that her company is in the middle of a Series B financing process with the target of $10 million. Raj Pillai of Nanocrystal Imaging Corp. discussed how close his firm's digital X-ray imaging product is to production of a technology that will replace film X-rays, much the same was digital cameras are replacing film cameras today.

Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Quantum Polymer Technologies was a presenter worth watching. QPT is readying the self-assembling polymer nanowires for products in the microelectronic, telecom and biomedical industries. A second company with interesting technology presenting at Friday's event was GeneFluidics, which is working on an inexpensive, handheld molecular identification and analysis device.

NanoSIG is a global nonprofit organization operating to promote the commercialization of nanotechnology.