Less than a year after Alan Waggoner secured a $13.3 million grant from the National Institute of Health to launch the National Technology Center for Networks and Pathways, a joint project of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, there's already talk of a spinoff.

You read it correctly. A startup company is possibly in the works -- harvesting the research of Dr. Waggoner and Marcel Bruchez, the chemist-turned-entrepreneur-turned-chemist that he lured from California to manage the effort.

The duo and their team of 34 make tools that create a window into the inner actions of cells that, they say, are like no other.

"Only in the past two years has the momentum grown" for introducing the product into the marketplace, Dr. Waggoner said.

Quantum Dot, the company Dr. Bruchez founded, ran, and then sold earlier in the decade, may have been planted in California, but any business he and Dr. Waggoner launch will be a Pittsburgh operation, they said.

Next month, they plan to convene an invitation-only round-table to talk about the commercial possibilities of their work.

"Our technology solves immediate challenges for heart disease and diabetes," [among other ailments], said Dr. Bruchez.

So far the pair is keeping mum about the details -- even using bit of science-speak to explain their plans.

"Our target is to nucleate something by the end of the year," Dr. Bruchez said. Translation: The pair aims to put their new tools in the hands of scientists -- just as the NIH has asked them to do.

It goes to show how federal research dollars can, in time, add value to the marketplace.

It turns out that layoffs in the Robinson office of ECI Telecom weren't as substantial as reports floating on the Web last week -- as many as 40 jobs lost -- indicated.

The layoffs came as the Israeli telecom giant said the Robinson operation, formerly Laurel Networks, hadn't been meeting sales targets and would be folded into its better performing optical networking unit.

Tony Scarfo, who heads the office, said fewer than 10 people were affected in Pittsburgh.

"The majority were in administrative functions that were no longer needed since we are integrating two divisions," he said.

Meanwhile, some are wondering what former CEO Atul Bansal and executive Steve Vogelsang, two of Laurel's co-founders, are going to do next.

Some have said "startup." Others have hinted that job offers at some well-known local firms are being considered.

The casualties of telecom's consolidation continue to grow. Level 3 said earlier this week it planned to lay off 1,000 employees. The company wouldn't respond to requests for comment on how the layoffs might impact the local operation, nor would it offer a head count of its Pittsburgh operation, formerly Cecil-based TelCove Inc.

"We don't discuss numbers in individual regions and offices," a company spokeswoman said.

In May, Colorado-based Level 3 scooped-up business telecom provider TelCove for $445 million in cash, plus $637 million in shares and $155.5 million in debt, hoping the 1,400-person firm would help it turn into a giant provider of high-speed voice, video and data services to businesses.

It's unlikely that Pittsburgh will feel the wrath of the job ax, since Level 3 has finished melding the former TelCove into its operation. Level 3 most recently acquired Austin, Texas-based Broadwing Corp., which sources say is likely to feel the brunt of the downsizing.

Pittsburgh City Council heard from Carnegie Mellon University students about different models for citywide Wi-Fi service Thursday -- and one concept jumped to the top.

William Peduto, council's point person on technology, liked the idea of having one company build a citywide network, and then allowing as many as three competing Internet service providers to use it and compete for customers.

The question is who would pay for it. "We're a city that doesn't have money. We're not going to be able to build it on our own," Mr. Peduto said.

Director of City Information Services Howard Stern said the city is legally barred from even negotiating with Wi-Fi providers, but Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration is talking with the nonprofit group Wireless Pittsburgh about taking on that role. "We're hoping that they will take the lead, and do something similar to what the [Pittsburgh] Downtown Partnership did to get this off the ground" with a Downtown-only Wi-Fi system, he said.

The company that built that system, USWireless, which was just bought by Ielement, would love to help but can't afford the estimated $10 million it would cost to build a top-flight Wi-Fi infrastructure citywide, according to that firm's Executive Vice President Timothy Pisula.

On Monday, Paul Petrovich will lead a workshop titled "Put it in Writing ... Build Your Business Plan" from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the James Centre, 327 S. Main St. Mr. Petrovich is the technology and small business innovation research grant consultant at the University of Pittsburgh's Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence. Hosted by the Pittsburgh Technology Council, this is the second of nine EnterPrize panel discussions planned as the 2007 EnterPrize Business Plan Competition chugs along.