Scientists at a Chicago start-up have won recognition for Star Trek-style technology that works much like a tiny version of the 'tractor beam'.

Arryx's first product has landed on R&D Magazine's 100 best new technologies list.

Dubbed the BioRyx 200, it acts much like a tiny pair of tweezers using 200 laser beams to grab, move, spin, assemble and control small particles such as cells and sperm.

The process is crucial in research that could result in separating cancer cells from healthy cells, picking out stem cells, and in developing three-dimensional integrated circuits.

It is also an improvement over current technology, which requires employees to be specially trained, and which cannot manipulate certain particles.

So far the BioRyx 200 system, which costs much the same as a major piece of lab equipment, has been bought by the University of Maryland.