May 2004, Issue 2

CogniScent
An interest in the neural processes of the sense of smell led coinventors John Kauer, PhD, and Joel White, PhD, both of the Department of Neuroscience, to found CogniScent. As a postdoc in Professor Kauer's lab early in the 1990s, White began a computer-based modeling project on the structure and physiology of neuronal networks leading from the nose to the brain. Together Kauer and White worked up ideas for testing the model with artificial inputs. From this basic research evolved an artificial nose that recognizes vapor-phase molecules through mechanical, electronic, and optical components. The most pressing uses for this technology are all related to security - for detecting chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals, and explosives. The technology has been reduced to practice in a portable prototype, and it has been used to identify anti-personnel mines buried in an Army test field.

The invention disclosure form was filed in March 1998, and the first patent was filed in 1999. Kauer and White decided to incorporate the company in 2002. CogniScent is currently funded by an Army SBIR contract and was one of only two Massachusetts companies granted funding in the first round of SBIR contracts from the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Kauer's advice to anyone thinking of attempting a startup is to realize that it is going to be a long, risky process requiring a great deal of perseverance by everyone concerned.
CogniScent's two founders have shown this perseverance over the past decade. The initial patent that was filed in 1999 has now issued, and Tufts has filed for a second patent on a novel DNA-based chemical sensor within the same license. CogniScent currently rents laboratory space in the biotech incubator at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine.

For more information on Professor Kauer's research, go to http://www.neurosci.tufts.edu/kauer.html

For more information on Professor White's research, go to http://www.neurosci.tufts.edu/white.html