Exciting new companies at NJIT's small biz incubator get 100K in grants

The New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology has awarded almost $100,000 as part of its SBIR bridge grant program to two start-up companies based in NJIT's high technology business incubator. Applechem Inc. www.applechem.biz and Lenterra www.lenterra.com, located in NJIT's Enterprise Development Center (EDC), each received Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) bridge grants.

"The Center works hard to help young inventors wend their way through the grant application process," said Judith Sheft, NJIT Associate Vice President Technology Development. "And when success comes their way, we're thrilled." EDC also helps companies develop linkages to university faculty collaborators. Som Mitra, PhD, professor and chair of NJIT's Department of Chemistry, collaborated to expand the application of Lenterra's technologies.

Lenterra was awarded $50,000 to develop innovative sensor and analyzer technologies for applications in analytical instrumentation, industrial processing, aerospace, environmental metrology, and biomedicine.

"Our current focus is on two proprietary sensor technologies," said CEO Valery Sheverev. "We are looking at a microplasma-based technology for gas identification and a fiber-optical sensor technology for industrial and environmental metrologies. Ultimately, manufacturers will use these technologies to control industrial processes with much higher precision than is possible now.

Since 2005, NASA and the National Science Foundation have provided support. Sheverev was a professor of physics at Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia. He started Lenterra in 2003, with an idea to commercialize analytical technology based on Penning ionization electron spectroscopy. Penning ionization is a chemical process based on the work of a notable Dutch physicist Frans Michel Penning (1894-1953) who among other things created scientific instruments still bearing his name.

Applechem Inc. will receive a $49,000 Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) bridge grant to continue commercializing a range of NatureVgelTM prototypes to market to the cosmetic and toiletry industry and explore new applications for use in other fields.