Firm touts bomb-detection tech

02.08.2008

Firm touts bomb-detection tech

Earns chance to make pitch for high-level U.S. audience

Fri Feb 8 2008

By Martin Cash

A small Winnipeg start-up company developing a technology to detect the unique electromagnetic fingerprint of explosives has a rare opportunity to make a pitch in front of high-level potential investors in the U.S. defence industry.

Fermion Inc. has been selected as one of 75 companies from several hundred that applied to present at the sixth annual World's Best Technology showcase in Arlington, Texas, at the end of March.

The Winnipeg enterprise, founded by University of Manitoba pharmacology professor Frank LaBella, has developed a revolutionary technology that should be able to detect the unique electromagnetic fields of any compounds.

LaBella said he can imagine that one day his technology could be used to detect suicide bombers or concealed dirty bombs.

He has been working on the idea for several years and credits guidance over the last two years from Biomedical Commercialization Canada (BCC), the technology incubator operation spun off from the National Research Council in Winnipeg. Since then, Fermion is more focused on a commercialization track, targeting explosives detection for airports and the security industry.

"This isn't something you can turn on like a radio," LaBella said. "So there have been a lot of naysayers over the years, but we now have third-party verification that the process works as well as some encouragement from senior aerospace people."

He said the chance to present at the Texas forum will open up a lot of opportunities for the company.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defence along with the Department of Homeland Security, NASA and the Government of Canada, among others, the sixth annual showcase has become a hotbed for new technology companies.

In an interview from her office in Scottsdale, Ariz., Amanda Radovic, director of the showcase, said it attracts a lot of U.S. government agency technology scouts. She said most of the companies presenting are early-stage or pre-commercialization technologies looking for the first round of financing.

Unlike other venture capital forums, the audience at the World's Best Technology show has an appetite for raw technologies.

"The people that will attend are excited by the promise that there is something there," said Marshall Ring, BCC vice-president of business development. "They are more inclined to understand that there might not yet be a full product but they can help you get to a full product."

Fermion won the top prize at the first annual innovation forum at the Manitoba Business of Science symposium in October and the company has had ongoing discussions with Department of National Defence officials in Canada and the U.S. aerospace company Northrop Grumman Corp.

Phil Unger, Fermion's vice-president of science and product development, said the Texas event is a big step for the company outside the province.

"There is a lot that the technology can do, but BCC has helped us focus on the market applications in explosives detection," he said.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

What is the World's Best Technology Showcase? It is the premiere event showcasing the world's largest collection of cutting-edge, first-to-market technologies before leading seed investors and Fortune 500 licensees.

Who attends that event? Of the 402 total identified investors/licensees who have attended in previous years, 353 are bona fide venture capitalist and Fortune 500 licensing scouts with committed funds. With investors and licensees making up almost half of the audience, exhibitors can expect roughly one out of every two participants entering their exhibit booth will be a bona fide investor or Fortune 500 licensee.

Are there other Canadian companies presenting? Including Fermion, there are more than 10 Canadian companies scheduled to present, from the University of Toronto, McMaster University, the British Columbia Institute of Technology and four different presenters from the University of Montreal.

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