Nano-level university labs give leg up to businesses  Neil Kane and his staff had figured out how to rearrange methane gas to create industrial diamonds, but their company couldn't afford to build the highly specialized lab needed for developing such nanotechnology. So they hit the rental market and paid for lab time at Cornell University's Nanoscale Science and Technology Facility. Thirteen nano-level university laboratories across the country - including the NanoTech User Facility at the University of Washington - are hiring themselves out to businesses eager to make their mark in the millennium of the minuscule.

UR-inspired startup on trail of deadly germ  Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus may be a bigger killer in the United States than AIDS. Now, a small company created out of technology developed at the University of Rochester hopes to get devices into the medical market by 2010 that could identify MRSA infections much more quickly than today's medical tests. Lighthouse Biosciences LLC is operating out of High Tech Rochester's Lennox Tech Enterprise Center incubator in Henrietta.

Nanotechnology companies planning to sell shares  Nanotechnology companies, nurtured on billions of dollars in government grants and venture investments through most of this decade, are getting ready to go public. "There are 200 commercial products in cosmetics, apparel and sporting goods in which nanotechnology plays a role," said Lynn E. Foster, emerging technologies director for the law firm Greenberg Traurig and author of the 2006 book "Nanotechnology: Science, Innovation and Opportunity." He cites clothing with a coating of nanoparticles - from the Nano-Tex Corporation of Oakland, Calif. - that repels stains.

AMD pledges educational help  Officials from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. say that when the company formally commits to build a $3.2 billion computer chip factory in Saratoga County, it plans to get heavily involved with the community, especially with education.

How Do New University Departments Affect the Knowledge Production in a Region?  In the quest for a region to become more innovative or attain higher levels of degree attainment, expanding the size of existing education institutions or increasing the number of community colleges and universities seems to be a somewhat practical strategy. But how long after these institutions are created or expanded do they produce a measurable impact on a region's innovation environment?