Industrial Nanotech, Inc. (Symbol: INTK), a Delaware corporation, is founded in 2004 by the founders: current CEO, Stuart Burchill, and President, Laurie Scherock, MBA.

It is important to remember that nanotechnology as an industry is only as good as its ability to assist other industries, and ultimately, consumers. It does not exist in a vacuum. Suppose the timber industry chopped down trees, processed wood, and then simply stockpiled the raw material. The timber industry is only as valuable as what it adds to consumers’ ability to build houses, make furniture, use paper products, etc. It is the same with nanotechnology.
So, Industrial Nanotech was formed with the goal to develop end-user products.

What is Nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of cell and atomic structure in materials that are no larger than a billionth of a meter in size.

“Science and technology on the scale of a nanometer - one billionth of a meter - is revolutionary. Nanotechnology could change the way almost everything is designed and made, from automobile tires to vaccines to objects not yet imagined.”
The Company’s target market is industrial entities that require a coating that provides insulation without causing, and even preventing, Corrosion-under-Insulation. Industrial Nanotech’s initial focus has been on the following markets:

Large manufacturing, processing and utility companies - petroleum refineries, food processing plants, power plants, etc.;

Residential and commercial construction industries - air conditioning duct manufacturers, metal building component manufacturers, general contractors, etc.;

Ship building and maintenance industry - commercial fishing fleets, supertankers, etc.;

Military - tanks, ships, aircraft, etc; and

Central to the Company’s sales strategy is its growing global distribution network - which has now reached 18 distributors and an additional five in the final stages of coming aboard. Industrial Nanotech started accepting applications in April 2004 after defining a global strategy and lengthy process of designing a distributorship program that is congruent with expansion plans globally, and of primary importance, protects the Company’s proprietary information, products, and intellectual property. Individuals and companies expressing an interest in obtaining distribution rights are pre-qualified, and minimum inventory and sales quotas are required to maintain their exclusive, geographical distribution rights.

Above is their stock performance in the past 6 months.

If Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter at the atomic level, at maturity achieves even a fraction of its promise, it will force the reassessment of global markets and economies and industries on a scale never experienced before in human history. Imagine the emergence of a nanochip that tomorrow would deliver over 50 gigahertz of speed with the processing power of ten supercomputers for the price of a quartz watch and smaller than a key chain. What might the economic impact on the computer industry be overnight?

Source: industrial-nanotech.com

Quote of the Day:
Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing. - Warren Buffett

Heart disease is, unfortunately, a growth industry, Three percent of baby boomers currently have heart disease and that number is expected to grow 10-15 percent within that demographic over the next 10 years. That’s more than 500,000 new cases annually for what remains the number one killer in the US of both men and women. Healthcare costs associated with heart disease already exceed $23 billion annually.

MIV Therapeutics Inc. (Symbol: MIVT) is an advanced stage, research and development company pursuing the commercialization of the next generation of fully biocompatible coatings for stents and other medical devices with the intent of providing healing solutions for cardiovascular disease and other conditions. In collaboration with the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Company has developed unique coating technologies that utilize Hydroxyapatite (HAp) for application on medical devices and drug delivery systems.

MIVT has a strategic alliance with the University of British Columbia (UBC), where it has licensed from the university worldwide rights to technologies for coating stents and other medical devices with HAp. This coating enhances the biocompatibility of implanted devices since it is a material that is found in the body as the main constituent of bone.

MIVT’s technology is considered to be suitable for broad applications in cardiovascular and non-vascular drug/device combination products. The Company’s goal is to continue on its path of success and diversify its portfolio to capitalize on these potential applications, accessing the $200 billion market of combination drug/device products.

MIVT’s current product portfolio encompasses the following preclinical development projects:

• HAp-nano-film coating technology. The Company’s lead product in development is an HAp-coated coronary stent with a nano-film coating. HAp is naturally found in bone and tooth enamel and is rapidly integrated into the human body. As such, it may inhibit a variety of adverse and inflammatory reactions and potentially help reduce restenosis, a recurrence of CAD following angioplasty. It is also believed that HAp-coated cardiovascular stents will not trigger late adverse thrombogenic reactions.

• Drug-eluting stents. The Company is expected to enter the drug-eluting stent market by using a thicker coating of HAp loaded with a suitable drug, i.e. anti-inflammatory. The technology has applications in cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular drug/device combination products, including peripheral stents, biodegradable implants, gene therapy, and delivery systems for release of chemotherapeutic agents.

Recently there was a spike in the volume which, I must say, really intrigued me. The price has jumped up from $0.35/share to around $0.55/share. It went down a bit, then it shot up to $0.60/share. Could it be because Ernest C. Schloter, a senior analyst with Investrend affiliate SISM Research and a four star analyst according to StarMine, has reiterated his “Buy/4″ Rating and $2.50 12-month Target Valuation for MIV Therapeutics, Inc. in a Research Note?

Here are some of the comments which I have heard about them:

“The drug-eluting stent market grew from zero to $5.3 billion in three years and has captured 85% of the US stent market. To date, more than nine million DES devices have been inserted. In 2005, about 1.5 million patients were implanted with drug-eluting stents in the US alone…”

“Despite a stock price increase of more than 50% since last Wednesday, in our view, MIVT, at a market cap of only $35 million, is still massively undervalued… MIV Therapeutics is paying SISM Research $2,250 per month over a two-year period solely to ensure independent coverage.”

Hmm pretty interesting, don’t you think? I’m always fond of biotech stocks, regardless of whether they’re traded at a ridiculously low price or amazingly high price. This one happens to be traded a ridiculously low price and even a lot of people think of this one is undervalued. Well…We’ll see what’s going to happen with this one in the next 3-6 months.

Source: mivtherapeutics.com

Quote of the Day:
Foreign Aid: Taxing poor people in rich countries for the benefit of rich people in poor countries. - Bernard Rosenberg

Xenomics, Inc. (Symbol: XNOM) is the developer of next-generation molecular diagnostics products that address important health problems around the world. They are focusing on the development of DNA-based tests using Transrenal DNA or Tr-DNA.

Tr-DNAs are fragments of DNA derived from dying cells inside the body compartment. The intact DNA is fragmented in these dying cells, and then appears in the bloodstream. These fragments have been shown to cross the kidney barrier and can be detected in urine. Xenomics’ technology uses safe and simple urine collection to be applied to a broad range of testing, such as tumor detection, tissue transplants, infectious disease, even bio-terrorism.

Even though their stock performance in the past 3 months (see above) does not really look enticing, judging from the technology that they are currently developing - this stock can potentially be a good long-term investment. Let me give you a little bit of summary of their technology:

A particularly important feature of Tr-DNA diagnostic technology is that it is a true platform technology. This means that a single laboratory testing procedure designed to detect specific DNA biomarkers can be used to detect many forms of infectious diseases, cancer, transplanted cells and organs, or even prenatal detection of genetic markers of a fetus.

Tr-DNA tests are based upon a simple proprietary method of DNA isolation, followed by detection of DNA fragments bearing specific genetic markers. The detection methods and techniques are already well known and proven in molecular diagnostics laboratories where they are used to detect DNA in blood and a wide variety of specimens. Now these techniques are readily applied to the detection of Tr-DNA markers isolated from urine specimens. Thus, Tr-DNA technology may be applied to detecting and monitoring an extremely broad spectrum of medical conditions.

Additional advantages include:

• The kidney acts as a filter and presents purified Tr-DNA in the urine and, therefore, simplifies the sample preparation and DNA isolation steps currently required in the laboratory by other testing methods.
• The collection procedure is non-invasive and, therefore:
• Does not require the involvement of trained medical staff, and
• Easily supports repeated tests when conditions require and results in no discomfort for the patient.
• The Xenomics technology utilizes existing analytical equipment readily available in diagnostic laboratories through the world. Any new capital spending would be limited.
• Tr-DNA is stable at room temperature for extended periods. DNA in blood and many other traditional samples are not.
• Test processing can often be easily automated.
• Although many clinical Tr-DNA tests are performed using only a few drops of urine, it is readily possible to isolate these markers from larger volumes and thus increase the sensitivity of the test. This cannot be done easily using blood or tissue specimens.
• In many instances, blood or sputum for detection of infectious diseases cannot be easily obtained from many patients such as small children or the elderly. Urine specimens are not often a problem.
• Blood and other bodily fluids are highly infectious by nature, urine is not.

So…What do you think?

Source: xenomics.com

Quote of the Day:
Money may be the husk of many things but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintance, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy, but not peace or happiness. - Henrik Ibsen

By Tim Hanson (TMF Mmbop) and Brian Richards (TMF Brich)

Penny stocks have huge potential — that’s their blessing and their curse.

The potential rewards are enormous. Just take a look at what happened at Prana Biotechnology (Nasdaq: PRAN) over the summer — the stock more than doubled after some positive clinical data concerning the company’s PBT2 compound.

That $2 double looks like an easy gain, considering that White Mountains Insurance (NYSE: WTM) would have to add another $536 in value to double its share price, and Markel (NYSE: MKL) would need to throw another $394 on the fire to eke out another double.

Everybody loves pennies
It’s the potential of quick gains in stocks like Prana that keeps investors coming back. We typed “penny stocks” into Google and the search engine spit out “about 2,080,000″ hits. We did the same for more time-tested terms such as “blue-chip stocks” and “dividend-paying stocks” and got just 386,000 and 193,000 hits, respectively.

Sure, we expected a discrepancy, but the size of the gap was startling. It became even more interesting when we broke those hits down with Google Trends. According to Trends, penny stocks are particularly alluring to investors in Orlando, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Tampa, and Calgary — the locales where the term is most often searched.

Las Vegas, for one, makes a bit of sense. Those folks are gamblers.

Florida, though? Well, we hope the folks Googling “penny stocks” down there aren’t retirees.

This stock is set to take off! Or not.
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the term “penny stock” generally refers to low-priced (below $5), speculative securities of very small companies. To quote the SEC: “Investors in penny stocks should be prepared for the possibility that they may lose their whole investment.” (It’s worth noting that the emphasis in that last sentence is in the original.)

Pay attention to the SEC’s entire definition, not just the stock price. Going solely on price would wrongly categorize billion-dollar companies such as Sycamore Networks (Nasdaq: SCMR), Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE: CDE), and Solectron (NYSE: SLR) as penny stocks.

Regardless, the SEC is spot-on when it says that true penny stocks are among the surest ways to lose money in the stock market.

Well, then, why do we “love” penny stocks?
We love penny stocks because they’re fascinating. The world of pennies is inhabited by hardworking average Joes hoping to strike it rich, pumpers and dumpers, hypesters and scammers. In pennies, the logic and reason that applies in the rest of daily life is replaced by zeal and prayer.

However, we don’t love them enough to actually buy them. Yes, they have big potential. But their daily gyrations are unpredictable — the stock price movements have next to nothing to do with the underlying company the stock represents. In fact, trading in pennies is highly illiquid, and prices are often manipulated by forces not at all related to the business.

The dangers of incredible promises
If you’re buying stocks without paying attention to the business you’re buying, then you might as well be buying a lottery ticket. Or (to use another analogy) you might as well buy up every baseball card of a benchwarmer on the Akron Aeros AA baseball team, and hope that he someday rises up, fulfills his potential, and becomes an all-star for the big-league Cleveland Indians.

There’s a better way
Before you start saying the rest of the stock market is boring — with big stocks such as IBM having a “big day” when they move up 1% or so — let us introduce you to some underfollowed small caps. They’re nothing like penny stocks, yet they still offer some of the best returns on the market. Unlike penny stocks, promising small caps:

• file reliable financial statements
• are transparent
• have conference calls individual investors can listen to
• don’t simply hype their stock in press releases

That’s a starting point. There are more — and more important — criteria to help you find great small-cap companies. Our team at Motley Fool Hidden Gems, for instance, looks for a balance sheet with lots of cash and no debt, and a tenured CEO (or CEO/founder, if possible) who holds a substantial ownership stake in the business. In other words, we’re looking for big returns with good, old-fashioned, bottom-up analysis.

You can view the more than 50 small caps our team has already found with a free 30-day trial. There’s no obligation to subscribe, and we particularly recommend it for the penny stock-o-philes reading in Alberta and Florida. You know who you are.

Source: fool.com

Quote of the Day:
Good bankers, like good tea, can only be appreciated when they are in hot water. - Jaffar Hussein, Governor, Malaysian Central Bank

Dear Nancy Woods:

My close friend told me about a penny resource stock that he made a lot of money on. He wants me to invest in it, too. He says he thinks it could still double in value. What should I do?

Penny Shy

Dear P.S.:

Your friend could very well have made a lot of money on his stock and wants you to benefit. However, past experience has taught me that people will often tell you about their winners, not their losers. Rarely is someone eager to tell you how much money they lost while speculating on junior resource stocks. It would mean they made a mistake.

My words of caution are to remember you would be buying after the stock has made a significant move and you can never be sure of the future upside. Consider buying an amount that you can afford to lose so it won’t be disastrous if the price goes down. If your friend is right and the stock price does double, you will be happy you bought and made some money, even if it is not enough for you to retire on. These types of stocks are very speculative and not for everyone. Manage your expectations and you won’t be disappointed.

Dear Nancy Woods:

There has been lots of press about income trusts and the possibility of change in how these investments are taxed. I own a number of these. How could I be affected?

Trusting Investor

Dear T.I.:

The recent announcement by BCE that it will convert itself into an income trust has raised the awareness of the loss of tax revenue to the federal government. You can be sure the government is watching this closely and that this deal raises the probability of a change. The opinion of RBC’s Portfolio Advisory Desk is in the past, these tax rumblings hardly affected REITs and oil and gas trusts. You should review your income trusts and do a careful analysis with your advisor to fully understand the underlying businesses of these trusts. Pay extra attention to business trusts that may be more susceptible to changes — if there are any taxation changes.

Source: canada.com

Quote of the Day:
There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else. - Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart