This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.

Starting a new business is nothing out of the ordinary for Milton and Edgar Lee. Since the 1970s, Milton has successfully launched three companies, two of them with his brother Edgar. The Lees are what you would call serial entrepreneurs.

After Milton and Edgar sold their second company, Sensar Corporation, in 1999, they started talking about another business venture. They discovered a need for a portable instrument that could detect chemical warfare agents and other hazardous chemicals outside of a laboratory. This led to the development of a miniature gas chromatographic-mass spectrometer that could rapidly detect these dangerous materials in the field.

The result was the formation of Torion Technologies, founded in 2001 to develop, manufacture and market the world's smallest and most advanced chemical separation and detection systems. Torion's first commercial product is the GUARDION-7, a hand-held device weighing about 25 pounds that produces mass fingerprints of chemical molecules that tell the user what they are and if they are dangerous.

In May 2003, Torion landed a contract from the Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, to develop its product. Doug Later, who is president of Torion Technologies and has worked with the Lees on other ventures, says the suitcase-sized GUARDION-7 is revolutionary because of its size and by how quickly it works.

The GUARDION-7 will be useful to military personnel and first responders, including police and fire departments, as well as hazardous materials and civil support teams. The product is nearing completion, and Torion will market it during the first quarter of 2008. The company, which uses technology developed in collaboration with a number of scientists and engineers at BYU, recently moved to a new location in American Fork.

Doug anticipates Torion Technologies will grow quickly as others catch the Lee brothers' vision of the compact GUARDION-7.

For Zions Bank, I'm Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.

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