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Feb. 3, 2003 — Little LaSys Inc. got onto the Air Force’s radar thanks to twin strokes of luck — two scientists casually comparing notes and a savvy businessman stumbling onto the resultant technology. Now, with a $3.2 million vote of conference from the USAF Research Laboratory, the startup has entered the crowded biochemical agent detection field.
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The four-year military contract, awarded in 2002, seeks a remote aircraft-borne chemical and biological warfare detection system based on the Las Cruces, N.M., firm’s core technology. The company’s composite optical material — tiny glass tubes known as microcavities coated with particles of silver about 20 to 30 nanometers in size in a fractal formation — can amplify light energy by many orders of magnitude.
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LaSys hopes to create a module that can be machined within the next year, said Edward Burlbaw, LaSys’ vice president of research and development.
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The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States added urgency to an already-growing field, said Marlene Bourne, a senior analyst with In-Stat/MDR. LaSys’ many competitors include Nanosphere Inc., which is developing a biowarfare agent sensor, and CombiMatrix Corp., which is working on a sensor to detect both biological and chemical warfare agents.
Because the companies haven’t proved many of their ideas outside the laboratory, Bourne said, it’s too soon to tell if any has an advantage. Each one, she said, may be valuable in different circumstances.
LaSys’ composite sprung out of a chance conversation in the mid-1990s between two New Mexico State University scientists — Robert Armstrong and Vladimir Shalaev (now at Purdue). Armstrong was a microcavity expert, while Shalaev was an authority on fractals — rough geometric shapes that can be divided in parts that are small copies of the whole.
Because fractals and microcavities both amplify light energy, the scientists wondered whether combining the two could multiply the effect, Armstrong recalled. They found that the composite multiplied a low-power laser’s light energy by millions or even trillions.
Such enhancements can allow a unit drawing less power than a penlight to detect any material’s unique spectroscopic signature, known as Raman scattering, while using samples as small as one molecule, he said. Normally, only a much higher powered laser could detect the extremely weak Raman signals.
Because all molecules have a unique signal, Armstrong said, the technology can be used to identify any material, including explosives. LaSys also sees potential for using its technology in noninvasive diagnostic devices in the health-care arena.
However, the composite might have gone into the public domain if Las Cruces hadn’t been what Harold V. Smith and his wife wanted when they decided to move to the Southwest from North Carolina’s Research Triangle.
A 30-year management veteran, Smith “stumbled upon” the research during a visit to the school and saw its commercial potential. “Have you thought about a patent?” Smith asked the scientists. They hadn’t.
Smith, today LaSys’ president and CEO, worked with NMSU’s technology transfer office to begin the patent process. NMSU accepted his offer to take an equity stake in the company incorporated in January 2000. “We located ourselves in the university, where we have access to a lot of high-priced equipment that a startup wouldn’t normally have,” Smith said. “The university is ecstatic about the deal.”
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Company file: LaSys Inc.
(last updated Feb. 3, 2003)
Company
LaSys Inc.
Headquarters
3655 Research Drive
Building B, Room 107
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001
History
LaSys was incorporated in 2000 as the exclusive licensee of optical technology developed at NMSU. Company founder Hal Smith learned of optical research being done at NMSU and began working with the university’s tech transfer office to commercialize the technology.
Industry
Environmental safety and security
Employees
3
Small tech-related products and services
LaSys is focusing on development of a remote biochemical agent detection system for use on the ground or by unmanned aircraft. The core of this technology is an optical composite — a set of glass microcavities coated with silver fractal particles. Spectroscopy is used to analyze the scattered light particles returned from the system’s low-lever laser transmission. Advantages of this technology include:
Beyond its obvious military and environmental applications, LaSys’ system also has possibilities in minimally invasive medical diagnostics.
Management
Selected strategic partners and customers
LaSys is working with New Mexico State University on development of its agent detection system. The company is also partnering with New Mexico congressional representatives to gain funding for a $2.5 million project to create a homeland security device that detects tainted organisms in imported foods.
Investment history
LaSys, which to this point has not sought venture funding, has benefited from two military research contracts. The second, recently awarded, is a four-year, $3.2 million contract with the U.S. Air Force, which will be administered by the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Sensors Directorate. Additionally, the company has received tech support grants from the NASA-funded Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP). LaSys’ project with the state legislature is funded by the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute.
Barriers to market
The base technology being used at LaSys has not been tested extensively outside a laboratory, so its key advantages and applications are not yet certain. LaSys is also entering a crowded competitive environment.
Selected competitors
Goals
“We’ve got to deliver a breadboard in the upcoming year,” said Edward Burlbaw, LaSys’ vice president of research and development. “We’ve avoided investor financing to go after federal funding,” said Harold V. Smith, the firm’s president and CEO, “but ultimately I will do some investor financing.”
Why they’re in small tech
Because without the fractal coating of silver nanoparticles, the relatively huge (1 millimeter diameter) microcavities would not amplify light energy enough to make the technology viable, Burlbaw said.
What keeps them up at night
“Certain things we don’t have the answer to,” Burlbaw said. “How much of this glass rod needs to be covered with these fractals? What is the best optical alignment: where we bring in the beams and get the magnified signal out optimally?”
Contact
— Research by Gretchen McNeely