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Dec. 20, 2002 — Dozens of companies, federal laboratories and research institutions around the world are racing to develop accurate, always-on systems that can detect traces of anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox and tularemia in packages, buildings and water supplies.
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At the heart of many of these systems are MEMS-based technologies designed to sniff out lethal bioagents. They promise to replace expensive and complicated equipment currently in use to detect hazardous microbes.
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Most currently available systems use antibodies to detect the presence of biohazardous agents. Alexeter Technologies in Wheeling, Ill., sells “Bio Threat Alert Test Strips” treated with antibodies that react to specific biological toxins.
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“They work like a pregnancy test,” explains Todd Burke, a technical sales specialist for Alexeter. The strips are typically used by emergency workers at “white powder incidents,” Burke says. Once a strip has been doused with a collected sample of the suspect powder, it takes about 15 minutes before a colored line appears, indicating the presence of anthrax or other biological agent. A box of 25 strips costs $500, and a portable strip reader, which can take more accurate readings of test strips, costs $4,500.
Alexeter isn’t the only company that has a portable detection system available now. If you’re in the military, you can buy a handheld biohazard detector from Smiths Detection Edgewood Inc. However, says company spokeswoman Barbara Kraft, the reagents needed to operate the $25,000 detector won’t be available until January or February. Called the Bioseeq Hand-held PCR Detector, the 8-pound device uses Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technology to detect viral and bacterial pathogens and delivers sample results in about 20 minutes.
But neither of these systems comes close to what everybody wants: a “smoke detector”-style biohazard system that could be installed by an untrained person and would sound an alarm at the first sign of chemical or biological contamination. But that kind of thing is years off, says Burke. Alexeter is now working on MEMS-based biosensors that could be the bellwether of a new breed of instant, always-on, biohazard detectors. The company expects to have something on the market in a couple of years.
If the smoke-detector fantasy is going to become a reality, the next generation of biodetectors will have to use faster and less-complicated methods to sample the air and water for deadly pathogens.
NuGen Technologies Inc. of San Carlos, Calif., believes it has a better way to identify biological toxins than PCR, and it’s managed to get a National Institutes of Health grant to develop it. The process is called single primer isothermal amplification (SPIA). Jan D’Alvise, NuGen’s chief executive, says SPIA is more accurate and easier to automate that PCR because it reproduces DNA directly from the sample and doesn’t need thermal cycling, both of which are required by PCR to develop a sufficiently large test sample. NuGen is working on developing the reagents and plans to evaluate manufacturing partners soon.
Another company working on new ways to detect pathogens is Northbrook, Ill., based Nanosphere Inc. After receiving a multimillion-dollar grant from the U.S. Government Technical Support Working Group in October, the company announced that it would develop a novel way to detect minute traces of biowarfare agents in water using gold nanoparticle probe technology. Vijaya Vasista, Nanosphere’s chief operating officer, says she’s “not in a position to say anything” about the technology, but says the system will ultimately be “field deployable.”
In Kennewick, Wash., MesoSystems Inc. is developing a system to collect and concentrate airborne particles from ventilation systems. In February, Ardesta LLC invested $3 million in MesoSystems, which sells two products that concentrate airborne biological particles. Ardesta is also the parent company of Small Times Media. The BioCapture is a portable device, and the MicroVIC is designed for use in systems that monitor large indoor and outdoor environments.
Because bioweapons aren’t the only kind of airborne toxin in a terrorist’s bag of dirty tricks, the race is on to develop detectors that can sniff out a variety of biological and chemical weapons at once. CombiMatrix Corp., based in Mukilteo, Wash., is working on just that. The company recently shipped three prototype handheld units to the U.S. Army. CombiMatrix’s nonreusable millimeter-square chips contain antibodies that react to a wide variety of toxins. “They’re very sensitive,” says company Vice President Bret Undem. “That can react to as few as 10 spores.” CombiMatrix is in negotiations with several potential device manufacturers and is in the process of receiving a $3.6 million federal grant to develop the chips for full-scale use.
Martin Hugh-Jones, a professor at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, is the coordinator of the World Health Organization Working Group on Anthrax Research and Control. He believes much of the research needed to build handheld biowarfare detectors has already been completed. The reason for the flurry of new research, he says, is because companies are hungry for a share of the billions of dollars that the federal government is handing out in of research and development grants for anti-bioterrorism. However, he is excited by the possibility of hand held biowarfare detectors, saying, “I’ll be glad when [handhelds] are here, because you need them in the field. It’s a waste of time getting stuff back to the base.”