Start-Up

Name: MXF Technologies Inc.

Location: College Park

Funding: The company has received $6.5 million in funding from private investors and is attempting to raise $15 million to $25 million more for global manufacturing and sales.

Big idea: MXF Technologies has developed tunable monochromatic X-ray filters that can be attached to a standard X-ray tube. "A normal X-ray spectrum goes from 10 to 60 keV [kiloelectron volts] on the energy scale," said Michael A. Champ, executive vice president. MXF's filter tunes the X-ray to a particular frequency within that range that is specific to the chemical, material or tissue being examined, increasing the resolution of the resulting X-ray and reducing the amount of radiation to which the X-ray subject is exposed. MXF has also developed a multi-energy X-ray technology that can take multiple monochromatic X-ray images simultaneously, said Yong M. Cho, chief executive. The multi-energy technology is not compatible with current X-ray machines, but Champ hopes it will eventually be used by small hospitals as a cheaper alternative to expensive CT machines, or by the military on the battlefield.

Example of use: In medicine, Champ said, the technology could be used to look for specific types of cancer cells in the body, to measure bone density, or to improve detection of blockages in the heart. Champ said the company will first focus on applying its technology to mammography. The X-rays used in mammography are optimized for women who have more fatty tissue in their breasts, Champ said, making the test less effective on younger women with less fatty breasts. Champ said MXF's filter could be used by mammography radiologists to tune each test to the fat content of the breast being examined. In industrial testing and quality assurance, the filter could be used to measure the strength of welds in a building frame, the quality of a piece of plastic or the amount of sulfur in gasoline. "You could shine an X-ray on gasoline running through a tube and you could monitor the sulfur content 24/7," Champ said. In the security arena, the filter could help tune an X-ray to find different types of explosives in luggage.

Where the idea was hatched: The technology came out of work the company's executives had done for NASA in the construction and development of X-ray telescopes, which measure X-rays coming from outer space.

Big-name customers: University of Virginia Medical School, the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, Duke University and Johns Hopkins are performing research with MXF's filters, Champ said.

Price: MXF charges $40,000 for one monochromatic X-ray filter and $150,000 for complete systems. Champ expects the price to decrease as the company begins mass-producing its filters.

Founded : 2004, as a spin-off from Mentor Technologies Inc.

Who's in charge: Yong M. Cho, chief executive; Kew Chul Chee, chief financial officer and chief operating officer; and Champ.

Employees: 21

Web site: http://www.mxftech.com/

Partners: Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, University of Maryland.

What the name means: It's short for Monochromatic X-Ray Filter Technologies.

Where will you be in five years?: "I hope we save a lot of lives," Champ said. "You know how 'Intel Inside' is on your computer now? We want a sticker like that that says 'MXF Inside' on every X-ray machine in the world."

-- Andrea Caumont