CSU research leads to deal with military

Colorado State University recently won a sole-source contract from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center for research technology that is already on the way to commercialization.

The work of Charles Henry, a professor and researcher with CSU’s chemistry department, and his research group attracted the contract. Henry has developed a technology for developing small, inexpensive sensors to detect certain chemicals.

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A sole-source contract is one that is not bid on by multiple vendors because the desire product can only come from one source. Henry and his group are unique in their work with these sensors because they specialize in electrochemistry. Electrochemistry is a science that deals with the relation of electricity to chemical changes, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

The contract is officially for “microfluidic sensor chips for movement, control and detection of anionic species.” An anionic species is a negatively charged molecule.

“(The Department of Defense) is interested in this technology for its potential use in sensors to identify contaminants such as perchlorate in water,´ said Dana Finney, the public affairs officer for army’s Construction Engineering Research Lab in Champaign, Ill. “The result is envisioned to be a ‘lab on a chip’ which can allow sensors to be located remotely and operated unattended to provide data on the water body being monitored.”

Henry, who is leading the research on this contract, said perchlorate is an accelerant in army munitions.

He explained that the army is interested in finding a cheaper and more convenient way to test groundwater and surface water for chemicals such as perchlorate. The current testing process for these chemicals must be done offsite in a lab.

Henry said the sensors he is developing are made with polydimethylsiloxane – the same material used to make contact lenses – and hair-thin wires. The type of the wire used determines the compounds that the sensor will detect. These sensors cost about 10 cents a piece to build, Henry said.

The contract will provide the university with $45,000 to conduct “basic, proof-of-principle research,” according to Dana Finney, the public affairs officer for army’s Construction Engineering Research Lab in Champaign, Ill. The research deadline is December.

“(The research) is very fundamental,” Henry said. “The intent is to continue the development.”

If the initial phase of research proves successful, the army will continue to contract the university for additional research. However, the actual development would be handled by the company that has licensed this research from the university – Fort Collins-based Advanced Micro Labs.

Advanced Micro Labs formed in 2004 but still doesn’t have any full-time employees. Henry acts as a scientific executive officer. The company recently completed some phase one research funded by the National Science Foundation and is waiting to hear if the research will continue. There are also several companies interested in forming developmental agreements with Advanced Micro Labs.

“Ultimately, this technology has a lot of applications,” Henry said. “This technology will be the future of clinical diagnostics and chemical analysis.” However, there are limits.

“There are particular types of chemicals this works well for and some that it doesn’t,” he said. In addition to clinical diagnostics, these sensors will work for environmental purposes – at bioethanol plants, for example – and in other processing, such as fermentation processes at breweries.

This is the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s first contract with CSU and Henry’s first contract work for the Department of Defense. The university, however, is accustomed to working with the department.

In fiscal year 2004, the university received $12.2 million in funding from the Department of Defense. That is a 22 percent increase over a four-year period. Total federal funding for the 2004 at CSU was $152 million, led by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.