Date: Jan 15, 2008 Source: ARMY SBIR Success Stories (
click here to go to the source)
The Army has an urgent requirement to reduce the possibility of disease in the event of either bio-weapon attacks and/or non-battle injuries (DNBI). The Army's current bio-warfare agent detection systems are becoming more effective, but have large power requirements that limit remote use and require highly trained operators. In addition, bio-warfare agent samples come from diverse sources, including surface swabs, biological tissues or rinses, soil, water, and aerosols.
These samples often contain contaminants that can inhibit downstream analysis. Another complicating factor is that sample volumes can be as much as 20 mL whereas the final analytical volumes can range from 1 to 100 microliters.
So there is a mismatch in the amount of sample that can be analyzed (without concentration); this can impact sensitivity and reduce the likelihood of detecting bio-warfare agents.
To address these factors, Microchip Biotechnologies Inc. (MBI) is developing a prototype Universal Sample Preparation Module (USPM) based on an integrated microfluidic chip-based technology that will overcome many of the disadvantages of current systems. Under the Army's new Commercialization Pilot Project (CPP), the USPM will be developed to enhance the capabilities of the Army's current detection systems. The USPM will fully automate the isolation, purification, and concentration of the bio-warfare agent from samples, and will be highly compact and use minimal power.
The USPM employs paramagnetic bead technology that enables volume reduction and purification simultaneously and can target specific bio-warfare agents from complex mixtures. The device will selectively capture and purify bio-warfare agents including toxins for subsequent immunoassay analyses on other platforms, and viruses and bacteria whose nucleic acids will be isolated for analysis using methods such as the quantitative polymerase chain reaction.
Ultimately, the same microfluidic platform will also be capable of processing medical diagnostic samples and performing downstream assays and detection using the quantitative polymerase chain reaction on microchips. This will lead to next-generation, portable, and fully automated systems to support the Warfighter.
Phase III Impacts:
MBI projects commercial sales of the USPM in excess of $105M in the next four years. MBI's target markets for automated sample preparation technology include biodefense, forensics, food and agricultural analysis, genomics, and molecular diagnostics.
