California-based Syagen received the award from the DHS Science and Technology Office to enhance the company's Guardian Explosives Trace Portal, a suicide bomber threat detection technology for airport security. With the award, officials say the mass spectrometry trace detection technology will expand capabilities at aviation security checkpoints among and other soft target sites.

Officials say the Guardian ETP is a non-invasive screening technology for airline passenger screening capable of trace explosives detection used by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.

"We greatly appreciate this support from DHS, which further validates mass spectrometry as the next-generation technology for use in trace detection of explosives and other chemical threats in the security field," Jack Syage, Syagen president, said in a statement.