VICTIMS of a terrorist attack are discovered dead or dying on the London Underground. Emergency services fear that this is a man-made virus attack.

It is crucial to know instantly which virus. So they bring out "the box", amazing new technology which rapidly identifies which germ has been used, such as SARS (Severe Active Respiratory Syndrome).

That is the vision of a new and thriving York company developing the "box" which once perfected will also have other uses, such as instantly detecting avian flu; or even as a medical diagnostic tool.

The firm is Avacta Ltd, a detection and analysis technology company, based at the Biocentre, at York Science Park, in Heslington. Having entered the Science And Technology and New Business Of The Year categories in The Press Business Awards 2006, the firm has this week successfully launched on the AIMS market, reaching a £25 million cap on its four pence per share price.

The "box" represents one of two companies within the Avacta Group. The other, Avacta Analytical Ltd, offers analytical services to pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, such as Smith&Nephew, whose research and development base is in York; Unilever; and biopharmaceutical firm UCB Celltech.

Professor Alastair Smith, Avacta's chief executive, said: "We provide high end analytical services that require state-of-the-art equipment.

"We have just signed a collaboration agreement with a big biopharmaceutical company to deeply analyse materials used during the drug developing process. We believe we can help to predict which materials being used will fail at a later stage.

"If you consider that one material failure can cost as much as $1 billion, then what we have to offer by way our new biophysical analysis technology is of real significance.

Prof Smith, whose 15 person staff consists mainly of PhD scientists - both physicists and chemists, said: "The laser-based technology we are developing will mean that on the battlefield the enemy's potentially dangerous substances or weapons can be analysed at a reasonably safe distance."