Angels We Have Heard Are Still Around

New Mexico Business Journal, Dec, 2001

Just when you though venture capital money had just about dried up comes an announcement from MicroChem-Lab Technologies Corp., an Albuquerque startup, that it is receiving $5.5 million in seed funding from a group of private investors. The company is negotiating for a license to intellectual property for lab-on-a-chip technologies invented by Sandia National Laboratories for detection of a wide range of chemical and biological warfare agents and explosives for national security applications.

Sandia's prototypes have been undergoing testing at the Army's Edgewood Chemical and Biological center for about one year. This seed funding, the news release notes, will enable the company to establish the necessary manufacturing capability and staff to support a quick response to nationwide terrorism threats and begin the creation of revolutionary products for quick, simple-to-use detection of a broad range of airborne chemicals, such as chemical and biological agents and explosives, as well as non-invasive detection o f chemical indicators of infection and diseases.