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Breakthroughs becoming products at NAU

By CYNDY COLE
Sun Staff Reporter
Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Five years ago, NAU physicist Tim Porter and chemist Tim Vail developed an idea for a tiny device that could sense chemical or biological agents in air or liquid and wirelessly transmit the findings.

Smaller than a baby's fingernail and highly sensitive, the microsensor could be used to detect poisons in war zones and population centers, hydration in people and water quality in wells. But Porter is a professor, not a businessman. He didn't know how he would turn the idea into a product until an NAU alum showed up, saw his idea and bought the rights to it for his San Francisco Bay Area company.

Getting such ideas to market is becoming less of a rarity for researchers and professors here at Northern Arizona University because they're getting help.

Ultimately, Porter and Vail's invention is destined to become a handheld device that will save babies and seniors some needle pokes by testing them for dehydration via saliva measurements instead of blood draws.

But the Army and Air Force are interested as well, Cantimer Inc. Chief Operation Officer Jim Reed said. The San Francisco 49ers are also expected to use it in off-season training in years to come, he said.

"There are a lot of different applications for it," Porter said.

The microsensor consists of a small lever on a silicon wafer that bends in conjunction with different materials that shrink or grow when they detect the substance they are designed to seek out. The flow of electricity through the lever changes once it is bent, indicating that the chemical or biological matter in question has been found, and to what degree.

NAU is getting other such ventures off the ground, six years after Arizona voters passed a six-tenths of a cent sales tax hike to fund technological research at the state universities.

The university is destined to receive about $1 million in state funds -- called "TRIF" or Technology and Research Initiative Fund money -- this year to help professors obtain provisional patents for their inventions, conduct market research, decide whether there's a viable product and plant seed money for start-ups.

At least 15 such spin-off companies have formed so far as a result of research from the three universities, with the researchers and the universities getting a small cut of any revenues.

NAU researchers fill out a short form to apply for a temporary patent. Those who are selected get others to do the legwork on market research and viability and receive hundreds of thousands of dollars for equipment, prototypes and research if their ideas are deemed worthwhile.

NAU biologist Lorretta Mayer and partners have found a way to induce menopause in mice without surgery -- making them better testers for drugs that may be used by post-menopausal women.

They are developing similar drugs to chemically neuter and spay dogs, cats, and wild mammal populations that have grown out of control.

Mayer has formed her own company and is working with W.L. Gore and Associates.

"The TRIF money has definitely aided in our ability to bring this technology to NAU," Mayer said.

She started this venture before state money became available for research that might lead to new technological developments, but has since received about $25,000 for equipment to view lab samples.

Cyndy Cole can be reached at 913-8607 or at ccole@azdailysun.com.

UP AND COMING AT NAU

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