When the 2007 FLC Awards for Excellence in Technology Transfer are presented in May, four of those winners will be from laboratories located in the Northeast Region.

The Plum Island Animal Disease Center of Greenport, New York will be honored for the development of a technology that bleeds mice humanely for research projects. The Center, affiliated with the Department of Agriculture, created a device that is a 2" strip of surgical steel with a triangular blade that controls penetration depth. Different point lengths accommodate for different size mice. The technique has increased the accuracy of experiments that require multiple samples from the same animal. This simple method to draw blood has reduced the suffering of laboratory mice. International researchers are rapidly adopting this technology and have purchased over a million lancets in less than a year.

The US Army Research Development and Engineering Command, Natick Soldier Center will be recognized for their technology, a portable chemical sterilizer (PCS). The Natick, Massachusetts-based laboratory created for medics a lightweight, durable, and reusable apparatus that can easily be transported and that conveniently sterilizes contaminated medical equipment without requiring electricity. Beyond the battlefield the PCS can benefit other markets such as community hospitals for emergency back-up sterilizer units, and global entities supporting worldwide disaster relief efforts and humanitarian aid in third world countries.

Another Massachusetts laboratory, the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, will receive an award for the development of Crash Energy Management (CEM) passenger rail equipment. This technology will improve the safety of cab car led passenger trains in the event of collisions with locomotive-led trains. CEM improves crashworthiness with crush zones designed to collapse in a controlled fashion during a collision, distributing the crush among the unoccupied areas of the train. New rail equipment with the CEM features is expected to be in service in 2009.

The Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Newport (Rhode Island) will be honored for the BLUE ROSE Fiber Optic Perimeter Security and Detection System. The BLUE ROSE detects an intruder via changes in the buried optical fiber caused by sound waves in the ground. The system alerts the operator with an audio alarm as well as a visual display of the location of the intrusion along the perimeter. This technology is being made available as a commercial product for perimeter security at airports, power plants, oil and gas refineries, commercial and domestic buildings, pipelines and international borders.

The FLC Northeast Regional congratulates these laboratories on a job well done.