Departments
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Week of 26 March 1999 |
Vol. II, No. 28 |
Feature
Article
Three photonics companies launched in unprecented venture
by Brian Fitzgerald
In 1994, when BU established the Photonics Center with the help of a $29 million federal grant, experts saw the emerging photonics industry as one full of promise. "Just as emerging developments in electronics beginning in the 1960s laid the groundwork for an explosion of innovative products and services and entirely new industries in the late 20th century," says Donald Fraser, the center's director, "so photonics is providing a broad foundation for new opportunities as we enter the 21st century."
And with the Photonics Center's recent launch of three new commercial corporations -- each based on an innovative technology developed by a BU faculty member -- their prediction is proving true. Developing products that find trace amounts of pathogens in food and water, detect recurrence of cancer in a patient, and monitor patients noninvasively -- all new opportunities that are being realized with the establishment of PhotoSecure, Inc., PhotoSense, Inc., and PhotoDetection Systems, Inc. -- wouldn't be possible without this unprecedented move by a major U.S. university. Historically, higher education has always engaged in basic research and applied research, but rarely has it been part of the process of transferring the discoveries that are made in basic research to the marketplace.
In this case, however, BU professors who developed the new companies' technologies worked with the Photonics Center to incorporate their inventions into commercially viable products. The professors and the center are partners, sharing in the management and development of the companies, which were established in concert with the private venture firm of Marenghi & Co.
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Chemistry Professor Guilford Jones is the cofounder and chief technical officer of PhotoSecure, one of three new companies launched by BU's Photonics Center. Photo by Vernon Doucette |
More and more universities are attempting to bridge the gap between basic research and practical application, and the Photonics Center was built with that purpose in mind: forging business partnerships with investors and industrial partners. "The launch of these companies is another important milestone in the fulfillment of our mission," says Fraser, a veteran of the Apollo space program and Draper Labs. "We are charged with focusing and accelerating the commercial development of advanced photonics technologies by combining ideas from within and outside the University with the expertise and resources necessary to create real products and real businesses."
Marenghi says that a handful of other universities have taken a "strong interest" in trying to establish or assist start-up companies, "but very few have the companies actually incubating on campus, or have access to all the equipment and laboratories necessary to do this. In that way, what we're doing is unique."
The Photonics Center's technological development space -- its $80 million facility on Saint Mary's St. opened in 1997 -- has laboratories that include the full range of equipment needed for rapid prototyping and testing of new photonics technologies and products. The three companies, unlike traditional models for university-industry relations, are partnerships that are true business relationships. Financial benefits accrue to the University only if and when a product is successfully launched.
PhotoSecure, Inc.
PhotoSecure, Inc., is developing products based on novel
proprietary photochemistries designed to protect the health
and safety of the public by detecting trace amounts of
agents in food and water that cause disease. Other
photochemistries are being developed to assure the safety of
"critical" products, such as pharmaceuticals and
over-the-counter medications, as well as automobile and
aircraft parts.
These technologies were invented by CAS Chemistry Professor Guilford Jones II and Photonics Center Research Associate Dingxue Yan. "Our collaboration with the Photonics Center has provided an excellent vehicle for bringing years of research effort into a timely commercial enterprise," says Jones, PhotoSecure's cofounder and chief technical officer. "The center has provided an important incubator for our company's creation, providing laboratory and office facilities, access to investment capital, and the advice and counsel of staff with senior-level business efforts in a wide range of industrial sectors."
PhotoSense, Inc.
"Smart Skin" sensors and systems with a broad range of
medical and industrial applications have been developed by
PhotoSense, Inc. Uses include noninvasive patient
monitoring, orthopedic rehabilitation, and automotive
passenger safety. Smart Skin patents were awarded to James
Hubbard, Jr., research associate professor and senior
systems engineer at the Photonics Center, and Shawn Burke,
research assistant professor and the center's deputy
director. Hubbard is cofounder and chief technical officer
of PhotoSense, Inc. Burke is cofounder and scientific
advisor.
In a hospital or nursing home, Smart Skin technologies can provide unprecedented, noninvasive patient monitoring at a very low cost. In the automotive industry, Smart airbag control systems are being tested by PhotoSense in partnership with major automobile manufacturers to control how forcefully airbags are deployed in a collision in order to prevent injuries.
PhotoDetection Systems,
Inc.
PhotoDetection Systems, Inc., has developed patented
advanced medical imaging systems -- positron-emission
tomography (PET) -- for detecting the recurrence and staging
of cancer, characterizing the severity of cardiac
emergencies, and diagnosing brain disorders. These imaging
systems are based upon the work of William Worstell,
assistant professor of physics at CAS, and Valery Zavarzin,
senior research associate at the Photonics Center.
The company has developed a highly sensitive gamma camera for PET, a three-dimensional imaging system that can detect small cancer lesions, abnormalities as small as one or two millimeters in diameter. The system can also distinguish benign from malignant tissue by measuring the rate of metabolic activity in the lesion. The camera's fiber-optic sensors track emissions from radioisotope-labeled glucose that is preferentially taken up by cancerous cells. Both single-organ and whole-body systems are in development.
Worstell, chief technical officer of PhotoDetection Systems, is working with colleagues in the radiology and nuclear medicine departments at Boston Medical Center to establish a new PET center that will utilize both whole-body and single-organ PET detector systems.
"The incubation of these companies within the Photonics Center has been, and will continue to be, vital to their success," says Marenghi. "By providing the business and technical support and know-how to move some very creative ideas into marketable products and real companies, both the center and the University have taken a bold step in defining a new role for academia. In the true Terrier spirit, we are going for a hat trick."