The First International Palestinian Conference on Nanotechnology for Advanced Material and Devices

Isotretinoin is 13-cis-retinoic acid and is related to both retinoic acid and Retinol (Vitamin A). It has been commonly used for the treatment of severe acne and the other dermatological diseases , isotretinoin has some deficiencies, such as poor solubility in water and in most organic solvents and poor stability, being easily oxidized when heated or exposed to light.
Because water insoluble drugs often show low absorption and weak bioavailability, improvement in solubility is important for development of drug preparations .
Drugs can be solubilized and formulated in nanoemulsions . nanoemulsions are excellent candi- dates as potential drug delivery systems because of their improved drug solublization , long shelf life and ease of preparation .
Recently, Tetronic surfactants have been studied as possible vehicles for drug delivery; hence, studies on their behavior under a variety of conditions will be an important part of the formulation in delivery agents.
Tetronic 1107 is a tetrafunctional block copolymer surfactant terminating in primary hydroxyl groups see figure (1) . A nonionic surfactant that is 100% active and nontoxic This study aims to investigate the phase behavior of Tetronics 1107 with Propylene Glycol as a model oil and cationic surfactant tetra butyl ammonium bromide at different temperature (25,37,and 45 C), and then investigate the phase behavior of Tetronics 1107 with R (+)-Limonene oil at different temperature (25,37C ) to form nanoemulsion in order to improve solubility of isotretinoin.
Visual inspection , cross polarizers and polarized microscopy were used to detect anisotropy . A cubic phase and micelle were detected in the corresponding ternary phase diagram. each of them will be used to formulate of isotretinoin in a second stage.

Polylactide (PLA) is a biodegradable, biocompatible, and nontoxic polyester, which has various applications i.e. in the biomedical, and pharmaceutical field. In the bio- medical field, PLA is used to prepare different types of biomaterials e.g. sutures, bone screws, scaffolds, films for tissue engineering, and microcapsules for controlled drug delivery systems. Besides, hollow PLA microcapsules can be used as ultrasound contrast agent (UCA). Imaging of the body with ultrasound can be significantly improved when UCA’s are used because these capsules can resonate in the acoustic field which increases the backscatter signal of the ultrasound. Loading the UCA’s with drugs gives extra benefits as the drug can be released at the desired location by bursting the capsules with the ultrasound. Successful application of these capsules in the body requires control over their properties. The overall aim of the thesis is to produce hollow microcapsules with controlled properties including size, size distribution, structure, and thermal and mechanical properties. The microcapsules were prepared with multistage premix membrane emulsification of PLA/dichloromethane/template liquid (i.e. oil) solutions in a nonsolvent solution consists of water or water-alcohol mixtures and proper surfactant (polyvinyl alcohol). After emulsification, the solvent is extracted into the nonsolvent, and consequently the polymer solidifies into polymeric shell around the oil droplet which can be removed later by freeze drying to from hollow microcapsules. *The research described here was conducted at the laboratory of Food and Bioprocess engineering group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Nether- lands, under the supervision of Professor Remko Boom and Dr. Karin Schroën.

Bootstrapping is not for the faint of heart. These brave entrepreneurs must make decisions every day that directly affect the success of their startup. In this lecture, Justin Beck will talk about the ups and downs he faced bootstrapping his mobile and social gaming startup, PerBlue. From the early days in college to a successful high growth company today, Justin will tell the important lessons he learned along the way. During the lecture Justin will cover the major challenges he faced, like why he turned down a high paying job at Microsoft to work 100+ hours a week in his college apartment. He’ll talk about recruiting friends to PerBlue, and how he compensated them with zero budget. This lecture will cover raising funds, and making the most out of very little capital.
Finally, Justin will talk about Parallel Kingdom’s revenue model, and how it allowed PerBlue to grow a team of five employees to over thirty five in just three years.

The world’s population has exceeded 7 billion in the year 2011 and continues to grow by 83 million people per year to reach an estimated 9 billion in 2050. The quest for safe, secure and sustainable sources to meet the need for those billions poses one of the most critical challenges of our time. Our Civilization will be seeking food, water, energy and other resources on a planet where humans are already shaping the web of life. The increasing demand for these resources drives research in academic and industrial institutions in order to discover new ways to produce fresh and safe drinking water, extract energy from renewable sources, and to develop more efficient and affordable products and practices.
Innovative research and novel technologies are the catalysts for the acceleration of growth in knowledge-based economies, which provide developing countries big opportunities to compete with those that are already developed. To play in the knowledge based economy league, Palestinian policymakers must pave the way for the next economic engines by spear-heading the shift to a knowledge-based economy. People’s education must be the highest priority starting at the elementary school level and going all the way to the university undergraduate and graduate levels. We must prepare the current and future generations of our students to lead the way towards a better future for our people.
Academic and industrial professionals have to lead the change; the status quo cannot be maintained. Academics have to liberate themselves from their self-imposed confinement. As much as we need specialized scientific research in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, nutrition, agriculture, medicine and many other disciplines we must regroup in the world of multidisciplinary science and technology and work in teams. Artificial barriers and walls that exist between specialized units at academic.
Institutions must be removed; the challenges that face the Palestinian nation are too complex to be addressed by individual researchers or individual disciplines. The future economy has no room for ego and cannot tolerate ignorance, tardiness and incompetence. Albert Einstein once said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results;” we must progress.
Despite the fact that Industrial institutions do not have the same brain power or the inventive capacities of academic institutions, they are often more disciplined in approaching problems and coming up with solutions within tough constraints. This is due to the fact that their own existence is threatened should they fail to reach productivity and profitability within certain timelines. A knowledge based economy integrates the brain power of academia with the efficiency and business skills of industry, and fuels this integral with every available resource from government, foundations and people. The result is a transformation of information into knowledge; leading to advanced technology, efficient production and job creation- all of which provide the cornerstones for a prosperous future for the nation as a whole.
A critical mass of young established Palestinian researchers must be brought together by building bridges at the national, regional and global levels to shed light on these issues and to develop policy recommendations. In the meantime, we do not need to reinvent the wheel, but rather we can learn from the experience of others. Developed countries have spent hundreds of billions of dollars to develop advances in medicine, engineering, material science, nanotechnology, biotechnology, telecommunication and advanced electronics. We must use this wealth of accumulated knowledge as a starting point for future development of innovations- providing fresh and safe drinking water to our people, developing efficient renewable energy sources, as well as preventing and curing common diseases that are striking our region. Social networks have to be employed in our future efforts to document and collect needed knowledge from various media sources, to create collaborations at all levels and to build connectivity between philanthropists, researchers, policy makers, manufacturers and consumers. The effectiveness of social networks have been demonstrated in the past year in promoting democracy and breaking the fear factor among the young generations in the Arab World. The same tools can be used to break the fears of re- searchers, help promote their confidence and provide them with the necessary tools to achieve the goals of their scientific research. Social networks can also be used to raise the awareness of the people and help in making them active partners in building the future of the next generations.
In this presentation, we will present affordable and novel examples, approaches, and recommendations for professors, researchers, students, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and policy makers that can be implemented to provide innovative solutions to existing water, energy, food and health challenges facing the region in general, and Palestine in particular.

Fullerenes are carbon spheres that have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. The transformation of monocytes into foam cells is an inflammatory process underlying atherosclerotic disease. We hypothesized that fullerene derivatives (FD) could inhibit the monocyte-to-foam cell transformation step involved in atherosclerosis. Fullerene derivatives inhibited the phorbol myristilic acid/oxidized low-density lipoprotein differentiation of monocytic U937 cells into foam cells as determined by lipid staining, cell adhesion, and scanning electron microscopy. Oxidized low density lipoprotein-induced generation of TNF-α, leukocyte integrin Mac-1-driven cell clumping, and CD36 receptor expression were significantly inhibited in FD treated cells com- pared to non-treated cells. For the first time it is shown that FD can dramatically reduce NF-κB expression in the oxidized low-density lipoprotein-dependent transformation of macrophages into foam cells. Apolipoprotein E knockout mice (ApoE -/-) fed a high fat diet (HFD) had dramatic inhibition of plaque formation in the blood vessels when treated with FD compared to non-treated controls. Lastly, no in vitro or in vivo toxic- ity was detected with FD; instead the FD helped reduced liver toxicity associated with the HFD. Thus, FD may be a heretofore unrecognized way to prevent atherosclerotic lesions through the inhibition of foam cell formation.