H-Cube® – Bench-top Hydrogenation Unit by Thales Nanotechnology, Inc. Receives Prestigious R&D 100 Award

05/10/2005

5 October 2005, Budapest, Hungary – Thales Nanotechnology, Inc. announced today that its development has been recognized as one of the 100 most technologically significant and innovative new products of 2005 by R&D Magazine. The award winning development, H-CubeTM, is the first in a new wave of continuous-flow hydrogenation reactors. Utilizing water electrolysis to generate hydrogen, with a catalyst cartridge system and with a continuous-flow reactor, the shoe-box sized H-CubeTM makes hydrogenation convenient, more efficient and less hazardous. With this equipment, reactions that are almost impossible to carry out under normal circumstances can be performed. The product is already on the market and Thales Nanotechnology expects that its unique development will revolutionize catalytic hydrogenation in the next decade.

“We are pleased to have our H-CubeTM development recognized by the R&D 100 Award Committee,” -commented Dr. Ferenc Darvas, President and Chairman of Thales Nanotechnology. “We believe H-CubeTM together with its continuation reactors of the X-CubeTM series will make a significant contribution to drug development and discovery.”

H-CubeTM has already been purchased by leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as academic institutions in the United States and Europe.

Publications about H-CubeTM:

Saaby S, Knudsen KR, Ladlow M, Ley SV,

The use of a continuous flow-reactor employing a mixed hydrogen-liquid flow stream for the efficient reduction of imines to amines,
Chem. Commun. (Camb), 21 Jun 2005;(23):2909-11.

Device BD and Kappe OC,

Heterogeneous hydrogenation reactions using a continuous flow high pressure,

J. Combi. Chem., 7(5), 641-643, 2005.

Jones R, Godorhazy L, Szalay D, Gerencser J, Dorman Gy, Urge L, Darvas F,
A novel method for high-throughput reduction of compounds through automated sequential injection into a continuous-flow microfluidic reactor, QSAR Comb. Sci., 24(6), 722-727. (2005)

Spadoni C, Jones R, Urge L and Darvas F,
The recent advancements of hydrogenation technology and their implications for drug discovery research, Chem. Today, January/February 2005, 36-39

“The Oscars of Invention”

The Chicago Tribune has called the R&D Magazine Awards “The Oscars of Invention”. The 43-year-old R&D 100 Awards program honors the most technologically significant new products and processes of the year. Technologies are judged by a large panel of technical experts from a variety of disciplines. The judges look for breakthrough products or processes that promise to improve people’s lives through technological advances.

Key innovations receiving past R&D 100 Awards include the development of the fax machine, plastic rechargeable lithium ion battery, high speed fiber optic sensor system, ATM, high-definition television.

The annual R&D 100 Awards Ceremony will take place October 20, 2005 in Chicago. For more information on the R&D 100 Awards, visit http://www.rdmag.com

About Thales Nanotechnology, Inc.:

Thales Nanotechnology, Inc. is a company specialized in developing and providing microscale flow instruments for chemistry, by exploiting benefits of combining microfluidics, mesofluidics and nanotechnology with flow chemistry. Thales Nanotechnology is widely recognized for its expertise in transforming chemical processes to microscale continuous flow operations and developing manual or robotical continuous micro-reactors for the industry.

Contact:
Alexander Drijver
Chief Executive Officer

+36-1-880-8511