Morpho Detection, Inc. (MDI) has agreed to acquire technology development firm Syagen Technology, Inc., giving it capabilities in mass spectrometry-based technologies for security applications.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Syagen is a small California-based firm with 17 employees.
MDI, which is part of France’s Safran Group, said the acquisition will strengthen its position as a leader in trace explosives and narcotics detection solutions for the homeland security market.
Syagen gives MDI a “natural follow-on to its existing product line” and also “we love their entrepreneurial spirit,” Brad Buswell, vice president for Global Strategy at MDI, tells TR2. Morpho Detection will provide Syagen with engineering and commercialization support, he says.
In the trace detection space Morpho Detection’s leading product is its Itemiser series of desktop explosives detectors, the most recent of which is the Itemiser DX, which the company has sold 2,500 to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Buswell says that the Itemiser DX is doing a “great job” at detecting traces of conventional explosives and narcotics but as “our customers are faced with emerging threats” stemming homemade explosives “we see Syagen bringing us products to detect those.”
Morpho hopes to have a mass spectrometry-based product prototype ready in about a year or so to begin collecting data with before finalizing and taking it to TSA to begin the certification process, Buswell says. He adds that part of the commercialization know-how of Morpho will be to make the product affordable.
For Syagen the deal allows it to go to the next level by also tapping into Morpho’s manufacturing capability, Jack Syage, president and CEO of Syagen, tells TR2.
Mass spectrometry is often referred to as the “Gold Standard” in substance identification because it can determine the identity of molecules. The technology offers high resolution and “distinct responses” for explosives, including background materials, Syage says.
Syagen is currently working on developing a product that can be introduced into the market for screening air cargo, Syage says. Syagen has been collecting samples from the air cargo environment, which he says is challenging environmentally because of how dirty it is but also because of the many different commodities that need to be screened, as part of the product development.
Eventually the goal is to transition the technology to the airport and other checkpoints, Syage says.
MDI’s existing trace detection technology is based on Ion Trap Mobility Spectrometry. In addition to the Itemiser desktop devices, the company also has explosives trace portals which it sold to TSA at one time and has also sold to other customers such as nuclear power plants.
Syagen has developed two mass spectrometry-based trace portal systems that can be deployed at checkpoints to screen people either for explosives or narcotics. Similar to other trace detection portals, Syagen’s use air to agitate particles on a person’s body and clothing to be analyzed for traces of explosives or narcotics.
Syagen has received contracts from the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology branch to further develop aspects of its explosives trace screening portal and to apply is mass spectrometry expertise to air cargo screening.
Syage says that there isn’t much demand for the explosives trace portal technology given TSA’s appetite for whole body imaging systems but that the agency is still looking at this technology for potential integration. Syage says he can’t discuss specifics of TSA’s integration interests.
In 2009 Syagen also entered into a multi-year product development and license agreement with Northrop Grumman [NOC] focused on chemical and biological detection using mass spectrometry in applications mounted on military vehicles. That partnership remains “strong and ongoing” and the Army’s Joint Program Office for Chemical Avoidance is testing systems on Stryker vehicles as part of a competition, Syage says.
MDI says it will operate Syagen as a mass spectrometry center of excellence to develop next-generation trace detection systems. Syage and his team all plan to remain with the company.
Oppenheimer served as Syagen’s financial advisor on the deal. The transaction is subject to Syagen’s shareholder and regulatory approvals, including review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.