Looking toward the future, Cummings adds. HEL researchers are seeking opportunities to use their knowledge of medical sciences, instrumentation, and mathematics to develop better indicators of human response, such as the electroencephalogram for measuring brain waves.
"There are many sites within the brain that can be monitored," he explains.
"We're hoping that the last five years of really rapid advances in nonlinear dynamic systems will provide the tools to explore such areas. We're looking for tech transfer to come both ways on that one."
Ohio firm to market Lab-developed technology
Los Alamos has entered into an agreement giving an Ohio firm exclu- sive rights to market a more efficient technique for measuring the quality of new high-temperature supercon- ductors.
The agreement with Lake Shore Cryotronics Inc. is important because it's the first license granted by the Lab in the field of high-temperature superconductivity.
It is doubly significant because it's the first royalty-bearing license granted by the Lab since Energy Secretary John Herrington urged the nation's research laboratories to share new technology with private industry last June.
Los Alamos in 1988 became one of three national laboratories to house pilot centers under President Reagan's Superconductivity Initiative. At that time, Herrington said, "The centers will make the resources of the federal government available to U.S. industry in develop- ing commercial products from high- temperature superconductors."
The recent agreement gives Lake Shore Cryotronics exclusive rights to the pending patent on technology invented at the Lab by James D. Doss, an electrical engineer in Engineering and Maintenance (MP. 8).
The company, now in its 21st year, specializes in the development of pre- cision temperature-control instru- ments, associated sensors, thermom- etry and test systems for materials research in low-temperature physics. Its headquarters are just outside of Columbus, Ohio, in Westerville.
Lake Shore will incorporate Doss' technique into a new product aimed at firms involved in superconductor research and development. The prod- uct will be available for sale in May.
Potential markets include the United States, Japan, Europe, Korea, India, China, Taiwan and Australia.
Doss' "eddy-current superconduc- tor characterization technique" relies on the introduction of radio-frequen- cy electromagnetic fields into untest- ed materials. In this manner, researchers can measure the relative energy loss in superconductive ceramics. The major advantage of a superconductor over a normal con-
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Vol. 10 No. 6, February 16, 1990
License let on Lab-developed clean-up process Colorado firm to market rad waste treatment
A new chemical treatment process being evaluated for its ability to
remove certain radioactive elements from wastewater has been licensed to a Colorado company by Los Alamos. This process was developed by members of the Lab's Nuclear Materials Technology Division and could be used to support the Department of Energy's efforts to clean up the nation's nuclear weapons complex. Other potential applications within DOE and private industry include the removal of pollutant heavy metals from liquid waste
The workstation was developed by Tudor Buican, a biophysicist in the Lab's Cell and Molecular Biology Group (LS-4). It can be used in quan- titative cell analysis and in the human genome project, which aims to map the basic elements of human life.
A licensing agreement between the Lab and Cell Robotics Inc. gives the fledgling company exclusive rights to develop, market and sell the technology. The Los Alamos-based company was co-founded by Buican and Lab employee Ron Lohrding, who is on a leave of absence from the Lab.
The Cell Robotics licensing agree- ment is in keeping with LANL's efforts to encourage its researchers to form spin-off companies, said Ron Barks, director of the Lab's Industrial Applications Office. It rep- resents one of the many ways in
A company co-founded by Tudor Buican of Cell and Molecular Biology (LS-4) has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with the Lab. The company, Cell Robotics Inc. of Los Alamos, will manufacture and sell a microrobotic cell-biology workstation using technology developed by Buican and others at the Lab. Buican, shown here, won two presti- gious R&D 100 Awards for various elements of this technology.
which technology developed with tax- payer dollars can be transferred to the private sector, he said.
A trio of sophisticated technologi- cal capabilities made the micro- robotics workstation possible. The first component enables researchers to trap individual living cells or chro- mosomes and propel them through a liquid along a laser beam.
Research and Development Magazine included Buican's use of this capability in its annual roundup of the nation's most significant tech-
nical achievements in 1988.
The second element was a co rative effort between Buican an physicist John Martin, also of L The researchers utilized an adv. method for rapidly identifying li particles already marked with f rescent tags. Known as high-sp Fourier transform spectral anal this capability won Buican his second "R&D 100 Award" earlie year.
The final component, invente Buican and Bryan Upham, invo
the design and construction of the fully enclosed, multicompartmental chamber that allows for automated image analysis and manipulation of individual cells. Upham was a gradu- ate research assistant in LS-4.
The Cell Robotics workstation will analyze, sort and manipulate living cells and chromosomes to one micron accuracy. A micron is roughly 100 to 150 times smaller than the width of a single hair.
The commercial prototype, which will be available in 1990, will allow researchers to create new biological products-drugs, for example - one cell at a time. It can be used in biomedical research, clinical testing and biotechnology. It also has poten- tial applications in chemistry and materials science research.
Lohrding said the workstations will be marketed to federal and national laboratories, pharmaceuti- cal and biotechnology companies, research universities and research hospitals throughout the United States.
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Vol. 10 No. 8, March 2, 1990
Lab-developed security system goes to market Albuquerque firm to make, sell OS-8 software
Software for a computerized security program developed at Los Alamos soon will be manufactured and sold by an Albuquerque, N.M., company.
A license agreement between the Laboratory and Lujan Software Services Inc. authorizes the compa- ny to further develop, manufacture and sell the licensed software.
The Laboratory software and related hardware form a compre- hensive remote monitoring and control system that can be used to secure buildings or sites where access is restricted.
This technology, known as the Controlled Access Security Software System, was developed about nine years ago by members of Security and Safeguards Support (OS-8). They are Group Leader Paul Brown Jr.; Benny Martinez, leader of the alarms and sensors section; staff member Jim Koch; and technician Gerald Pomeroy.
Celso Lujan, president of Lujan Software Services, said the license agreement, which took about six months to negotiate, "went like clockwork."
The agreement was negotiated by Jan Haerer, a staff member in the Lab's Industrial Applications Office; Brown and Martinez of the Security and OS-8; and Sam Freund, a staff attorney.
Lujan said more small business- es could benefit by exploring the types of transferable technologies available at Los Alamos. "Once we identified the possibility, the Lab was willing to help," he said.
Lujan and his wife, Vivian- both lifelong residents of Albuquerque-founded the com- pany in 1980. Lujan said the com- pany employs about 20 people and grosses about $1 million a year.
He said the company hopes to sell security systems incorporating the Los Alamos technology to com- mercial nuclear power plants, as well as the departments of energy and defense.
Technology transfer is intended to place technologies developed at federal laboratories into the pri- vate sector where they can be com- mercialized. This was the sixth license negotiated by the Lab since January 1989.
Benny Martinez and Paul Brown Jr. of Security and Safeguards Support (OS-8) helped develop the software for a comprehensive securi ty system soon to be marketed by an Albuquerque company. They are shown here in the communications room at the central guard facility TA-46. The screens in the background are part of the Lab's security system and are used to monitor and control access to restricted areas throughout the Lab, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Inset: Rick Wood, a staff member in Engineering (CTR-4), uses a three-dimensional hand "reader" to activate a turnstile in SM 43. The automatic entry station is part of the system developed by the OS-8 team. Photos by Fred Rick.
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