Oct. 8 -- Todd Sickles said it's no secret that threats within the United States, and globally, are rapidly increasing. This is especially true in situations where toxins are weaponized, like sending anthrax through the mail.
"We know, and the government knows, because we can see the behaviors that illustrate how people are feeling the model out, 'Hey, can we get these harmful agents in the locations that can cause damage?'" said Sickles, CEO of Albuquerque-based BioFlyte. "People are pushing the envelope with it."
BioFlyte, a company focused on detecting chemical and biological aerosol agents, looks to directly address this issue. The surveillance firm hopes to further commercialize its technology through a recently announced partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory.
As part of the New Mexico Technology Readiness Gross Recipients initiative, the collaboration will test how BioFlyte's detection technology can be further developed utilizing LANL's Quick Urban and Industrial Complex, or QUIC, software.
The overall goal of the year-long partnership is to allow the company to license the QUIC software to then incorporate it into engineering teams and aid customers in designing solution architecture, Sickles said.
Founded in 2020, BioFlyte was spun out of Maryland-based Zeteo Tech, a biodefense and medical device company. LANL is contributing around $125,000 for the project, while BioFlyte will put up nearly $60,000.
Sickles said BioFlyte's technology looks for harmful threats in the air. That could be chemical agents put there purposefully, like someone intentionally mailing dangerous drugs, or biological agents that naturally occur, such as the development of a new virus.
The so-called mass spectrometry technology can be applied vertically or horizontally, Sickles said. Horizontal screenings are used for analyzing mail systems where, he added, BioFlyte has successfully identified three separate fentanyl detections. Last August, BioFlyte announced a similar partnership with SoBran, a company working to protect clients from mail-borne threats, to test the technology in these environments.
Vertical screenings, called critical infrastructure protections, are used for monitoring larger environments. Sickles said these are more complicated than the horizontal technique, as they require technology integration that can take weeks of testing trials.
BioFlyte's technology would enhance the QUIC software's indoor modeling capabilities to accurately simulate airflow, contaminant transport and sensor performance in facilities such as airports, arenas and transit hubs, according to a news release.
The integration of LANL's QUIC software would allow BioFlyte to be able to sit with customers and plug in different variables -- think like the number of instruments required, optimal placement or response time needs -- to come up with a solution in as little as two hours, he said.
"It is rewarding to see Los Alamos capabilities contributing to faster, smarter solutions for detecting and responding to biological threats," James Zahler, director for LANL's Richard P. Feynman Center for Innovation, said in a statement. "This partnership shows how scientific expertise and regional collaboration can advance technological readiness for the nation's most pressing security challenges."
Sickles said the company and LANL previously collaborated through the New Mexico Small Business Assistance program, finishing the work in early 2024, where the lab analyzed the reliability of BioFlyte's configurations as it prepared to commercialize its products.
"(BioFlyte) really fits the goal of these programs, which is for the lab to leverage all of its assets, all of its technology, to help New Mexico firms grow and learn from the technologies that we and others are trying to get into the marketplace," Sickles said.