 |
April 19, 2004 — It was a fine day for Luna Innovations last week, when the business incubator opened a manufacturing plant in Danville, Va., to make nanoparticles for its latest spinoff.
The company plans to put $6.5 million into the project and ultimately hire 54 workers. But that achievement was just the latest in Luna’s long push into wireless sensors, new materials and nanotech-related products.
Luna’s chief executive officer, Kent Murphy, founded the business while he was a graduate student at Virginia Tech in 1990. It survived off of government grants (and to a large extent still does), conducting research for the Defense and Energy departments, National Science Foundation (NSF) and other agencies. And Luna has never taken venture capital for its incubation business, although it does accept outside investment for its spinoffs.
 |
“It’s always been bootstrapped,” said Scott Meller, Luna’s vice president of research and development. “We try to remove a lot of the risk early on” through government-sponsored research, and then spin prototype products into commercial development with outside partners.
Luna the incubator already has five spinoffs. All are scattered around Virginia, to stay close to Murphy’s alma mater and other state universities.
- Luna Technologies licensed research from NASA to produce test-and-measurement sensors for optical equipment such as dense-wave division multiplexers.
- Luna iMonitoring started with an NSF grant to explore wireless senor technology. The company was acquired in October 2003 by IHS Energy to develop remote sensing products for the oil and gas industry.
- Luna Nanomaterials, another NSF-funded effort, developed a new type of carbon molecule shaped like a fullerene. By putting atoms of various metals into the carbon molecule (called a trimetasphere), the material improves the quality of magnetic-resonance images, X-rays and similar medical imaging.
- Luna Energy, another sensor company, uses fiber optics for oil drilling. Established in 2002, the business is a joint venture with Baker Hughes Inc., an oil field exploration company in Texas.
- Luna Analytics develops optical biosensors to detect proteins in the drug-discovery process. Luna Analytics already has one corporate customer (still unnamed) using its gear for life-sciences research.
Of all five businesses, the most “nano” company is Luna Nanomaterials. Its trimetaspheres are 80-atom fullerenes that form a cage, with three metallic atoms bonded to a core nitrogen atom inside. Barely more than a few nanometers in diameter, the particles are ideal as contrasting agents for medical imaging, said Charles Gause, a co-founder of Luna Nanomaterials and now manufacturing director at its new plant in Danville.
In particular, Gause said, gadolinium atoms “fall right into the MRI contrasting world. … It’s kind of like the clear ring of a bell.” With the improved image quality, doctors can use smaller, less-powerful MRI machines and still get useful data. The particles also allow doctors to take several different images at once, such as an MRI of soft tissue and an X-ray of hard tissue.
One of Luna’s oldest lines of work is the fiber-optic components business, now operating as Luna Technologies. Research firm Frost & Sullivan named Luna Technologies’ Optical Vector Analyzer its 2003 optical test product of the year, calling it the industry’s first integrated solution to analyzing all of a fiber-optic component’s parameters. Luna actually saw revenue growth in that department last year — no mean feat, when the telecom sector is in the tank.
“Luna Technologies is a standing example of how young companies in the communications test space can emerge as significant participants in a particular market segment by positioning themselves according to market demand,” said research analyst Ganapathi Subramanian.
Luna wants to develop more thin films, flame-retardant materials and biosensors with affinity coatings. “For a lot of that functionality, you need new materials and that’s where the nano comes in,” Meller said . He would not disclose Luna’s revenues or its budget for research.
null
Company file: Luna Innovations
(last updated April 19, 2004)
Company
Luna Innovations
Headquarters
2851 Commerce Street
Blacksburg, VA 24060
History
Founded in 1990, Luna is a broad-ranging research and development company that serves as an umbrella for several smaller organizations. Recently, Luna announced plans to invest $6.5 million to retrofit an existing manufacturing plant for nanomaterials production. This step is expected to enhance job prospects in their region of Virginia and will doubtless strengthen Luna’s corporate ties with the community.
Industries potentially served
Small tech-related products and services
Trimetaspheres: hollow carbon spheres surrounding metal or other elements, capable of functioning at temperatures up to 400 degrees Celsius (752 degrees Fahrenheit)
Management
Financials
Most recent annual revenues (2001): $10 – $25 million
Luna has received at least $10.9 million in government research grants, including $2 million National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) development grant
Barriers to market
Luna Innovations’ member companies share a strong IP portfolio; certain divisions are much more active than others, and the holding company may find it financially beneficial to collapse less-active divisions in the future.
Relevant patents
Flexible fiber optic microbend device, with interlocking flexible fibers, sensors, and method use
Non-lithographic process for producing nanoscale features on a substrate
Related articles
Nanomaterials production weaves job growth in former textile town
Virginia firm hopes buckyballs will strike rich new vein for MRI
Contact
— Research by Gretchen McNeely