May 06, 2010 –
Maxwell Sensors’ Ho lauds incubation for its many opportunities.
The Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program, administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Technology, stipulates that small technology businesses partner with a research university or other non-profit organization. CALIT2 has participated in many of these partnerships, including an ongoing collaboration with Maxwell Sensors, which is developing radio frequency identification sensor tags.
Twelve years ago, Winston Ho found himself at a crossroads.
Armed with a master’s degree in biochemistry and a doctorate in biophysics, he was toiling in the research and development department at an optical communications company that manufactured holographic display and fiber network systems. But Ho foresaw the growing market for biomedical devices and was intrigued by the opportunity to return to his educational roots.
So he wrote some proposals, scoured Southern California for expert collaborators, and in 1998, founded Maxwell Sensors in his garage.
The company, whose name derives from “MAXimize WELLness,” has grown to 18 employees, and now designs advanced biomolecular testing systems from its Santa Fe Springs, Calif. headquarters.
One of Ho’s earliest partners was CALIT2’s G.P. Li, the director of UC Irvine’s Integrated Nanosystems Research Facility (INRF). “I always look for experts in Southern California and I approach them to collaborate,” Ho says. He thought Li, who specialized in high-speed semiconductor technology and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), had just the expertise he needed to help get his ideas off the ground.
Using INRF as a foundry of sorts, the two developed a tool for point-of-care diagnostics. While that particular product is not currently in production, it underlies a technology the company uses to this day in an advanced diagnostics laboratory system.
Most of Maxwell Sensors’ funding comes from federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants, administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The company specializes in researching and developing new biomedical device ideas, then uses venture funding to spin off companies to manufacture specific products.
And because the STTR program requires small businesses to partner with research universities, Ho and Li, along with INRF’s Mark Bachman, have continued to build on their beneficial collaboration.
The team recently received an STTR Phase II grant to continue developing their latest innovation: radio frequency identification sensor tags (RFID-ST) containing temperature gauges, which can be used for transporting blood supplies, transplantable organs, food, and other temperature-sensitive substances.
The technology produces a safer and more cost-efficient product than currently exists. The tiny chip can display product information and temperature profiles on blood-bag products, replacing the numerous – up to seven – bar codes presently used on the bags. “This can improve transfusion safety by virtually eliminating the possibility of mix-ups,” Ho says. In fact, the RFID capability allows users to view product information profiles on a large number of individual items without having to open the shipping containers.
Li considers the grant-based university-business partnership an additional form of incubation. “These STTR grants are one more way universities can help new companies thrive,” he says. “Universities offer facilities and expertise that new businesses couldn’t otherwise afford.”
Ho thinks business incubation – in any form – benefits small companies like his. He is interested in learning more about CALIT2’s TechPortal as a potential home for future Maxwell Sensors spinoff companies. “Technical people like technology, but we don’t like the administrative stuff. It’s almost a nightmare,” he admits. “You really want to push the new technology but you don’t have too many people or a lot of money; you don’t have time to do it all yourself.”
Ho also appreciates the access to faculty and graduate students, and exposure to the outside business community. “Working alone, you can be very isolated,” he adds, “so that’s very important too.”
