Advanced Materials and Methods for Biospecimen Collection for Infectious Disease

In this Phase I research effort we propose to construct an advanced design for a collection swab to be used for collection and storage of biospecimens. Viridis Solutions and Dr. Magnus Bergkvist and Dr. Melendez (College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering, University at Albany) propose a novel nanofabricated swab that is capable of absorbing and stabilizing biospecimens for long-term storage and simplified sample recovery/elution. The proposed fabricated swab would maximize recovery and activity of nucleic acids, proteins, viable whole cells, active viruses, and bacteria without cold chain requirements. In the Phase I work we would evaluate the nanofabricated swab with a model system of Francisella tularensis.