[RASMB] Letters of support for Aviv development

[Tom Laue]

Hi all-
Aviv Biomedical is submitting a Phase II STTR (Small Business Technology 
Transfer) proposal to the NIH for the commercialization of the Rapid 
Scan Absorbance system developed by CAMIS. Beckman has no plans to 
improve the XLA/I optical systems. The Aviv-RSA will be a retro-fit for 
XLA/XLIs and will offer significant improvements over the current 
absorbance system. Part of the STTR application requires the submission 
of supporting letters indicating interest in the new technology.

I am writing to ask for letters of support for this development.

The Aviv AU-RSA will use the same data acquisition strategy as their 
AU-FDS fluorescence detector. This means that intensity data from all 
samples will be acquired simultaneously, with a complete scan requiring 
about one minute (at a 20 micron data spacing, averaging 50-150 
intensity measurements from each sample at each radial position). The 
Beckman servo motors will be replaced with stepping motors, which will 
result in faster and more reproducible wavelength settings 
(reproducibility better than 1 nm), and higher radial data density (step 
sizes as low as 1 micron may be used). The intensity data will be saved 
in a database, with options to create Beckman-compatible absorbance and 
intensity files.

The AOS software will operate the hardware, acquire the data and connect 
directly (via TCP/IP sockets) with data analysis and interpretation 
software. A draft open standard for program intercommunication, 
including AOS,  is under development and will be released for comment in 
early 2008. The current version of AOS is available for free at the 
RASMB site, and can be run in testing mode which allows software 
operation without any hardware being attached to the computer.

Please send letters of support either to me (Tom.Laue at unh.edu) or Glen 
Ramsay (glen at avivbiomedical.com) for inclusion in the proposal. The due 
date for the grant is December 1st.

Best wishes, and thank you-

Tom Laue

PS I am not an employee of Aviv Biomedical and will not receive any 
personal financial benefit from any sales of this device. There is, 
however, a portion of my summer salary included in the proposal. These 
funds will help support the development of the AOS software.

-- 
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
University of New Hampshire
Durham, NH 03824-3544
Phone: 603-862-2459
FAX:   603-862-0031
E-mail: Tom.Laue at unh.edu
www.bitc.unh.edu
www.camis.unh.edu