PAIR Technologies, a start-up company established by University of Delaware researchers and a former DuPont scientist, is preparing to commercialize a high-precision detector -- a planar array infrared spectrograph -- that can identify biological and chemical agents in solids, liquids, and gases, in quantities as small as an atom, and in less than a second.
The revolutionary technology holds promise in multiple applications, ranging from the early detection of diseases, to monitoring for chemical weapons and environmental pollutants, to enhancing quality-control efforts in manufacturing processes.
John Rabolt, the Karl W. and Renate B-er Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at UD, and his students invented and patented the technology in 2001.
Rabolt and Bruce Chase, who recently retired from DuPont as a research chemist, founded the company in 2005.
Their partners in the company include Scott Jones, professor of accounting and director of the Venture Development Center in UD's Lerner College of Business and Economics, and Dan Frost, who received his master of business administration degree from UD in 2008.
The University of Delaware owns the patents for the technology, which are under exclusive license to PAIR Technologies, and has taken a small equity position in the company.
"PAIR Technologies offers an analytical tool with the potential to contribute significant benefits to society through a wide array of medical, military, environmental, and industrial applications," says David Weir, director of UD's Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships.
"The company grew out of UD innovation and is a model for how federal, state, and University partners can work together to advance economic development," Weir notes. "These are the kinds of high-tech economic partnerships the University of Delaware wants to develop, and we will be looking more aggressively at opportunities like this in the future."
According to Weir, this is only the second time in the University's history that it has taken a small equity position in a UD start-up company. The first was ET International, a computer technology and software company founded by Guang Gao, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
The idea for PAIR Technologies actually was spawned in a UD graduate course, "High-Tech Entrepreneurship," which Rabolt and Jones co-teach. Students explore selected UD patented technologies in the course and then do market analyses to assess their commercialization potential. The planar array infrared technology consistently rose to the top.
"Most technology has about a 30-year cycle. Then something comes along to disrupt it, change it," Rabolt says. "We think we have that next-generation technology -- beyond the current market leader, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy."
The company has been steadily developing with federal, state, and University support, the researchers say.
"The whole thing is a partnership -- you can't do it alone," Jones notes. "We've written the grant proposals and won Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) and Small Business and Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the National Science Foundation. A 'bridge' grant from the Delaware Economic Development Office also was very helpful, and we've gotten invaluable assistance from experienced alumni, including Allan Ferguson, Barry Yerger, and David Freschman," Jones says.
OEIP and the Delaware Small Business Development Center, which is a new and critical component of OEIP, also has provided the company with a variety of help and services, from intellectual property protection to marketing assistance, according to Jones.
"The environment is much more business friendly now at the University of Delaware," Rabolt adds. "Statistically, only one in 20 start-ups will make it. Yet the ones that are successful are enormously successful. These kinds of opportunities also help attract high-quality faculty and students to UD," he notes.
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