Carbon Nanoprobes

(Post: English)
"Brian Ruby got the idea for what eventually became molecular imaging equipment maker Carbon Nanoprobes when he was a 15-year-old intern at IBM (IBM) working in the company's nanotechnology division."

While there, he won a number of high school science fairs, which led him to one of the fair's sponsors, a pharmaceutical company working on a vaccine for HIV.

Ruby found that there was no technology available to photograph the vaccine.

So he devised a tip for the end of imaging equipment that made it possible to capture images of the smallest particles on earth.

He founded Carbon Nanoprobes in 2003 in his Columbia University dorm room and has since raised about $4 million from institutional and private investors.

The company has nine employees and sells its equipment to universities, semiconductor firms, and material sciences companies.

After six years in research stage, Carbon Nanoprobes is now transitioning to equipment sales and expects about $1 million in revenue in 2010.

INFO:
The Company: Carbon Nanoprobes
What It Does: Molecular imaging equipment maker
Founder: Brian Ruby, 25
Based: Pike Malvern, Pa., USA

Source: BusinessWeek