Dunedin company, Australo, is applying technology first developed by Murray Broom for a fold-up kayak to the biochemistry world of nano-technology and the measurement, analysis and control of single microscopic particles.
The key to the technology was Dr Broom's development of a flexible polyurethane compound he first used to form the skin of a collapsible kayak he designed.
Dr Broom, Australo's chief science officer, now uses a hole in the flexible compound to detect, characterise amd control the passage of particles, providing scientists which much more information about them, more quickly than ever.
The technology is called scanning ion occlusion spectroscopy (SIOS) and Australo has created the science, hardware and software to fabricate and control "dynamically sizable nanopores''.
Australo executive chairman Hans Van Der Voorn said one of its first commercial applications was counting viruses.
Present virus-counting technology used light and, in some cases, could take a week to perform a count while still only providing an approximate total.
Mr Van Der Voorn said by controlling the size of hole through which particles passed, SIOS technology gave an exact number of particles, in a process that took 30 minutes.
Mr Van Der Voorn, who founded Nova Gas, said that to be competitive, New Zealand companies had to produce technology that was transportable, quick, accurate and cheap.
Australo was doing that, with the latest prototype about the size of a coffee grinder, but the 2009 version expected to be the size of a cellphone - for a tenth of the cost.
Comparable machines were the size of washing machines.
The ability to count viruses alone had a multitude of uses, from universities and medical research to general medical practitioners and by being portable, it could be taken into the field.
Initial development was done privately between Dr Broom and University of Otago biochemist Stephen Sowerby, but Australo, which was formed in 2005, was now working closely with university scientists and had a suite in the Centre for Innovation.
Mr Van Der Voorn said a virus counter would be released in the coming months and staff were travelling to Germany and the United Kingdom in the coming weeks to promote it.
A nanoparticle measurement tool would be available later this year and a sensitive molecular diagnostic platform was under development.
Australo was also working closely with Oxford University and partners in the United States, Australia, Japan and in NZ in refining and developing the technology.
Research, Science and Technology minister Pete Hodgson visited Australo yesterday to promote the Government's research and development tax credit.
He said the tax credit was available from Tuesday, and investing in research and development could earn companies a 15% tax credit.
