National Federal Laboratory Consortium Awards for Excellence in Technology Transfer2009 The world's first portable acoustic cytometer (PAC) harnesses acoustic waves to focus cells into a tight, centered stream for analysis. The result is greater throughput and sensitivity than conventional flow cytometers without the need for large volumes of purified water and for thousands of dollars less. The PAC brings the diagnostic power of high-performance flow cytometry to more researchers and healthcare providers around the world. Developed by researchers with the National Flow Cytometry Resource (NFCR) at Los Alamos, the PAC is one of six R&D 100 Awards won by LANL's flow cytometry team. A Los Alamos spinoff, Acoustic Cytometry Systems Inc., established to commercialize the technology, was acquired in late 2008 by Invitrogen, a global life-science products and services corporation. Nominees include: Steven Graves, Michael Ward, Gregory Kaduchak, Gregory Goddard, Robert Habbersett, John C. Martin, and Mark Naivar 2008 High Definition Laser Scanners for Surveying Nominees: James S. Lunsford (retired), S. Kerry Wilson (retired), and R. Clayton Smith (retired) Attila Nominees: John McGhee and Todd Wareing, Transpire Inc. Second-Generation High Temperature Superconducting Wire Los Alamos and SuperPower Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intermagnetics General Corp., began collaborating in 2000 under a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) for development of an earlier version of the coated conductor technology. With the formation of SuperPower, Intermagnetics made a commitment to invest significant resources in the scale up of 2G conductors. Using first-generation HTS wire, SuperPower implemented its first commercial in-grid demonstration of the technology in Albany County, N.Y., in 2006, connecting two power substations by running a 350-meter superconducting wire. By the end of 2007, the company had replaced a 30-meter section of the original 350 meters with 2G HTS wire to further demonstrate its viability. Nominees: Paul Arendt, Stephen Foltyn, and Quanxi Jia  |
James Lunsford (retired) developed his patent for Offset Stabilizer for Comparator Output to satisfy the need for more precise time-interval measurement increases “as we probe ultrafast processes in the physical and biological worlds.” This innovation is a crucial component in a line of high-definition surveying (HDS) laser scanners produced by world-class manufacturer of precision measuring instrumentation, Leica Geosystems. It contributes the ability to maintain the high accuracy of 6 millimeters at a distance of 50 meters during a survey, reducing or eliminating the need for costly return visits to a site. It also contributes to more accurate, complete as-builts for retrofit design projects, enabling more cost-effective retrofit designs. This sub-nanosecond interval timing ensures that each interval is absolutely equal to other intervals. Leica’s recently introduced ScanStation 2 runs at 50,000 points per second at peak with its speed and accuracy directly attributable to LANL's patented technology.
In 2002, John McGhee and Todd Wareing took Entrepreneurial Leave of Absence from the Laboratory to participate in founding Radion Technologies. Through a licensing agreement, the company built on core LANL technology to develop a complete radiation transport software product, Attila, that can predict how radiation behaves in a broad range of applications faster and more accurately than other products on the market. Since the first official release of Attila in 2004, interest has grown rapidly. Attila is now being used in over seven countries for applications as diverse as radiation shielding, radiotherapy, medical imaging, fusion research, homeland security, spacecraft design and reactor analysis. The company, renamed Transpire Inc., has received numerous small business innovation research grants, including two from the National Cancer Institute for medical imaging and radiotherapy. In addition to licensing its software to healthcare companies, Transpire has active collaborations with the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for radiotherapy and Baylor College of Medicine for medical imaging.
Second-Generation (2G) High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) wire is a revolution in the electric power industry. Using a patented deposition method developed at Los Alamos in collaboration with industry partner SuperPower Inc., the 2G HTS wire can carry 200 times more current than traditional copper wire. Compared with other HTS wire, LANL’s 2G HTS wire can be produced more quickly and inexpensively and can be manufactured in kilometer lengths.