| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"stoney" |
| Date: |
26 Jan 2004 11:31:04 PM |
| Object: |
OT: Science that seems like science fiction |
http://www.detnews.com/2004/technology/0401/26/b08-44647.htm
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Company develops lab-on-a-chip
$2 million federal grant helps create Ann Arbor firm's monitoring device
By Tom Henderson / Special to The Detroit News
Steve Perez / The Detroit News
{photo}
Vijay Namasivayam, a senior scientist at Ann Arbor-based HandyLab, works
with a prototype of a device that can identify microscopic amounts of
fluids, such as airborn pathogens or pollutants.
ANN ARBOR — Someday technicians may be able to determine instantly if a
woman in labor has an infection that will harm her baby, if an
unidentified powder is anthrax or if soldiers have been exposed to a
toxin, thanks to a product now being developed by HandyLab Inc.
The Ann-Arbor based for-profit company recently won a $2 million federal
grant to develop a so-called lab-on-a-chip for monitoring blood, air and
water samples for pathogens and chemicals.
The device, about 2 inches square, will help diagnose illnesses in
people and animals and monitor pollution and threats to the military and
homeland security.
For example, the device will be able to determine if a woman in labor
has Strep B, a bacterium that causes no symptoms in the mother but is
the leading cause of blood infection in newborns. Or it will be able to
tell emergency room doctors if a patient has a flesh-eating bacteria or
something more benign.
The three-year grant will be administered by the Advanced Technology
Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which
funds early-stage high technology.
The agency’s grant will let HandyLab, which employs 18 people, improve
its prototype chips. The first-generation chips used optical detection,
while the new devices use electrochemical detection.
The device works this way: It uses micro channels, with small valves and
gates, that heat tiny samples of fluid to detect pathogens and
contaminants. It can be used on-site, such as in an emergency room or on
a battlefield, saving time and money.
The channels in the chips are about 300 microns wide, about three times
the width of the average human hair and can process as little as 250
nanoliters of fluid. A nanoliter is a billionth of a liter.
The company’s first U.S. patent also has been awarded to engineer Gene
Parunek for the thermally activated gates that control the movement of
fluid in the chips.
Few companies’ grant proposals survive the tough federal review process.
Of the 1,075 proposals, HandyLab’s was one of just 107 that were
approved for funds, a NIST spokesperson said.
Gradimir Georgevich, a project manager in chemistry and life sciences at
NIST headquarters in Virginia, explained the application process.
HandyLab had to demonstrate that its technology was strong and feasible
before a panel of the agency’s researchers, and it had to have a
business plan.
Finally, company officials flew to the agency’s headquarters for an oral
review Georgevich likens to a doctorate student defending a
dissertation.
“Questions fly at them and they have to deal with them. They did very
well,” he said.
HandyLab was formed in 2000, growing out of the work of Kalyan Handique
and Sundaresh Brahmasandra, both University of Michigan graduate
engineering students from India. Their work was published in the journal
Science in October 1998.
In 1999, EDF Ventures, an Ann Arbor venture-capital firm, offered them
space in the company’s downtown headquarters and gave them $100,000 in
seed money for their company.
Since then, $7.9 million in venture capital from various sources has
poured in. More importantly, it included funding from a potential
corporate partner, Hewlett-Packard, which wants to create a hand-held
computer device that would interpret the information from the
lab-on-a-chip.
HandyLab President Bill Wood said the company is in the final stages of
negotiations to become a Department of Defense subcontractor for work
related to homeland defense.
Tom Henderson is a Metro Detroit free-lance writer.
(c) 2004 The Detroit News
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
.
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| User: "Douglas Berry" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Science that seems like science fiction |
27 Jan 2004 12:55:44 PM |
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Lo, many moons past, on Mon, 26 Jan 2004 21:31:04 -0800, a stranger
called by some stoney <stoney@the.net> came forth and told this tale
in alt.atheism
Company develops lab-on-a-chip
Holy fark, it's a tricoder!.
Yes, I'm a Star Trek geek.
--
Douglas Berry Do the OBVIOUS thing to send e-mail
Atheist #2147, Atheist Vet #5
Ezekiel 13:20 "Wherefore thus saith the
Lord GOD; Behold, I am against your pillows"
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Science that seems like science fiction |
29 Jan 2004 11:02:53 PM |
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On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 18:55:44 GMT, Douglas Berry
<penguin_boy@mindOBVIOUSspring.com>, Message ID:
<l0dd109uh7ntpmt2rcte59gscbkd5e63fa@4ax.com> wrote in alt.atheism;
Lo, many moons past, on Mon, 26 Jan 2004 21:31:04 -0800, a stranger
called by some stoney <stoney@the.net> came forth and told this tale
in alt.atheism
Company develops lab-on-a-chip
Holy fark, it's a tricoder!.
Yes, I'm a Star Trek geek.
BG......
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
.
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