Syagen Technology Inc., incorporated in 1996, is an analytical instrumentation company that has developed leading mass spectrometry technology for conducting high-speed molecular analysis. The company's patented instrumentation was originally developed for aviation security and chemical threat detection. Syagen has adapted this technology to meet critical high-throughput analysis requirements in rapidly growing niches in biopharmaceuticals, drug discovery and biotechnology.

Syagen’s business model is to provide advanced technology to both end users and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers. Syagen has supply agreements with Agilent Technologies, Thermo Electron Corporation, Waters Corporation, and Shimadzu Instruments for its patented atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI^®) sources for liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) instruments. Syagen has also developed a line of MS instruments designed for specific niche applications, such as explosives detection for aviation security, chemical/biological defense, and high-throughput bioanalytical analysis. In keeping with its business model, Syagen engages in partnerships with major companies in order to leverage Syagen’s core expertise in R&D and engineering for manufacturability with a partner’s marketing and distribution resources. Syagen is unique in being able to build customized, application-specific MS analyzers as part of an overall system.

Syagen has experienced annual revenue growth every year of it’s existence. The company for the fifth year in a row was named one of Deloitte & Touche’s Fast 50, acknowledging the fastest growing technology companies in Southern California as measured by growth rates over a five-year period.

Syagen is organized around two business units:

Homeland Security

Aviation Security: Syagen is working with the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories to develop a high-speed molecular analyzer for screening personnel and objects for explosives and other terrorist threat compounds.

Chemical/Biological Defense: Syagen has developed under DoD funding a high-speed molecular analyzer for detection of chemical and biological weapons and related compounds that are signatures for the presence or production of chemical and biological weapons.

Bioanalytical

Syagen has a strong R&D effort in developing fast and accurate analyzers for applications in pharmaceuticals and life sciences, including high-throughput drug analysis for combinatorial library and ADME screening. Syagen is also developing high-speed MSn screening instrumentation for peptide and protein analysis with the aim of detecting disease states in cell lines.

Some of the instrumentation developments being applied to these applications are described under Technology.