Nanotech scientists join local startup

STAFF WRITER

A local start-up company hoping to strike it rich with nanotechnology invented at Clemson University has hired two scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Hui Hu and Bin Zhao -- husband-and-wife researchers originally from China -- said they're leaving the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at the Oak Ridge lab to join Selah Technologies LLC of Pendleton at the start of the year.

Selah Technologies hopes to capitalize on two technologies invented by Ya-Ping Sun, a Clemson chemistry professor. The six-employee company was launched last year by Michael Bolick, a former executive at the Irix Pharmaceuticals plant in southern Greenville County.

Selah Technologies will be in the spotlight Tuesday during a ceremony to mark a $200,000 investment in the company from SC Launch, an arm of the South Carolina Research Authority that funds startup companies.

Selah Technologies is also scheduled to make a presentation Tuesday at the first organizational meeting to develop an Upstate network of so-called "angel" investors -- affluent individuals willing to invest in startup companies.

Both events are scheduled for the Westin Poinsett Hotel downtown.

Hu and Zhao said Monday they learned about Selah Technologies when Bolick came to their center at Oak Ridge about six months ago to use its facilities and draw on its expertise.

"We like the strategy the company has and the future plan," Hu said.

One of the technologies that Selah Technologies has licensed from Clemson is light-emitting nanoparticles called "carbon-based quantum dots." The other is called "carbon single-walled nanotubes."

Both technologies have a wide range of possible commercial applications, Bolick has said. Selah Technologies will sell them in a form that resembles black carbon powder.

Bolick said today his company is negotiating joint development agreements with two multinational companies interested in the technologies. He wouldn't identify the potential customers, but said they hope to develop new products in the areas of diagnostics, electronics and personal care and cosmetics.

Hu has a doctorate in chemistry and material science from the University of Kentucky. Zhao has a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California at Riverside. They have been postdoctoral researchers at Oak Ridge for the past two and a half years.

In their new job with Selah Technologies, they'll develop "nano-enabled" products based on the company's technology.

"These guys have the technical horsepower to get us there," Bolick said.

Hu and Zhao will report to Andrew Metters, a former chemical engineering professor at Clemson who is now chief technology officer at Selah Technologies.

The company occupies about 1,000 square feet in a business "incubator" in Pendleton operated by the Clemson University Research Foundation.