FORT COLLINS - A Colorado State University chemistry professor and a fledgling Fort Collins bioscience company have been awarded $750,000 to pursue work on a "lab-on-a-chip" technology to better detect cardiovascular disease.

The National Institutes of Health made the award to Prof. Charles Henry and Advanced MicroLabs LLC, who will use it to advance their research on an amino acid that is a marker for cardiovascular disease. The American Heart Association says studies show that too much of the amino acid called homocysteine in the blood is related to a higher risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.

The grant will go toward developing a prototype of the homocysteine detection technology, employing two chemists, a product development engineer and CSU graduate and undergraduate researchers to bring the technology to the health-care market. The technology has potential applications that extend beyond cardiovascular disease diagnosis.

"Homocysteine has been demonstrated in many studies to be an important marker for cardiovascular disease and vitamin deficiencies related to birth defects, pregnancy complication, psychiatric disorders and cognitive impairment in the elderly," Advanced MicroLabs president Dennis Tallman said in a statement announcing the award. "With the award of this NIH grant, we continue our efforts to commercialize this important technology."

The lab-on-a-chip technology rapidly performs complicated diagnostic analyses in a format that fits into a person's hand, thus providing a faster turnaround of test results at lower cost. Advanced MicroLabs licensed the technology in 2006 from the CSU Research Foundation and plans to expand its use for portable, immediate and less invasive applications.

The NIH grant is the second this year received by Advanced MicroLabs, a company that employs six and is among several CSU-based bioscience startup businesses. The company was awarded a $50,000 grant from the state of Colorado under a measure signed into law last April that furthers the advancement of bioscience discoveries. In all, the company has secured nearly $2 million in grants since it was founded in 2003.

Advanced MicroLabs is a member of the Larimer Bioscience Cluster and a member of the Colorado Bioscience Association. The city of Fort Collins and CSU work closely to foster startup companies that have a university connection.