2011 Venture Acceleration Fund awardee Southwest Sciences, Inc. of Santa Fe NM has been selected by NASA to receive a $125,000 SBIR Phase I award for development of a robust optical carbon dioxide isotope analyzer.

VAF provided seed funding for the design and fabrication of custom diode lasers necessary for this technology.  VAF is supporting Southwest Sciences and its partner Avisa Pharma, also of Santa Fe NM, in the commercialization of breath isotope tests for lung diseases.

Although NASA’s interest stems from a need for portable analyzers for atmospheric measurements, the underlying technology is the same as for the biomedical applications.

“VAF funding of the laser purchase was crucial to our success in winning this NASA contract.  We were able demonstrate to NASA that the resources are at hand and that commercialization support is available.  With the combined NASA and VAF funding, we are able to move forward with the development of high precision, portable isotope analyzers for both biomedical and atmospheric/environmental applications,” said Dr. Steve Massick, the project principal investigator.