INTERTECH 2011 organizers have announced that the event, taking place May 2-4 in Chicago, Ill., will feature a keynote address by Dean Ho, Ph.D., associate professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering in the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Full Member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University, where he directs the Laboratory for Nanoscale Biotic-Abiotic Systems Engineering (N-BASE).

Ho is renowned for his work with nanodiamonds, including the development of a process for targeted delivery of drugs into cancerous tissues. In his ground-breaking work, nanodiamond is coated with the cancer-killing drug and then coated with protein receptors that are injected into a cancer tumor. The protein receptors attach themselves to the tumor to release the cancer-killing drugs. Ho will elaborate on this process and additional nanodiamond technologies.

Additional keynote speakers include distinguished business leaders in the industrial diamond industry: Mitsuhiro “Chip” Goto, managing director, general manager, Sumitomo Electric Hardmetal Corp.; Walter Huehn, executive director, Advanced Materials and Technologies Division, Element Six; and Mark Schweizer, CEO and president, Diamond Innovations.

For more information, visit www.intertechconference.com.