New digs, new research goals
Published 8:21 pm Friday, June 15, 2007
BOTHELL – In a space formerly planned as an athletic club, researchers at a growing company are finding new ways to use lasers to both protect and heal people.
Aculight Corp. has settled into its new headquarters in the Canyon Park Business Center, just a couple miles north of its old facility. The move, to be formally marked today with festivities that include a visit from Rep. Jay Inslee, is the latest sign of the company’s recent growth.
“This helps to speed the growth along, it helps create new business,” said Aculight’s chief executive officer, Don Rich.
Always known for its research work with laser technology, Aculight has, in recent years, focused more on turning its ideas into real-world products. The company’s first commercial laser came out just two years ago, and product sales are growing.
But research still propels the company. That explains the need for the new 47,500-square-foot headquarters – about 60 percent larger than the old offices, which had been split between two locations – includes 14 laboratories and clean rooms.
“We more than doubled our available lab space,” said Andrew Brown, Aculight’s director of business development.
“Everything is built around those labs and clean room spaces,” Rich added. “Because that’s where we make our money.”
Aculight’s roots are in developing lasers for military applications, including lasers used in countermeasures against other weapons and in radar systems. On Thursday, in fact, the company won a three-year, $2.6 million subcontract to improve the manufacturing of defensive lasers.
But the company also has been adapting technology for new uses in the medical field.
Last year, it introduced a nerve stimulation laser for medical researchers. While it’s not yet approved for routine use on humans, Aculight hopes that one day, its laser can replace electrical nerve stimulation to help patients with Parkinson’s disease, a nervous system ailment characterized by involuntary body tremors, get some relief. The technology may also provide a new solution for people with damaged hearing or paralyzed limbs.
Rich, a U.S. Navy veteran, said the technology also has the potential to help returning soldiers from Iraq who suffer from neurological injuries.
In addition to breaking new ground, Aculight’s work is generating more revenue, ranking it among the state’s fastest-growing private firms.
Last year, the revenue growth slowed somewhat, but it’s still on an upward trend, Rich said. By the year’s end, he expects to employ at least 90 people. Less than five years ago, the staff numbered fewer than 40.
“We continue to grow really, really well,” Rich said. “We seem to have filled our new space really, really quick.”
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
Aculight Inc.
Headquarters: Bothell
Founded: 1993
Employees: About 85
Web site: www.aculight.com
Elizabeth Armstrong / The Herald
An orange glow, as seen through an amber-colored window, surrounds Marc Norsen (above), an Aculight development engineer, as he looks through an infrared viewer in one of the company’s specialized laser labs. Below, Peter Borschowa, an intern from the Milwaukee School of Engineering in Wisconsin, works on designing a power supply to Aculight’s new labs.
