Spores Viability Detection System

There is an urgent need for a rapid biological detection system that demonstrates the efficacy of decontamination products for inactivating Bacillus anthracis spores on environmental surfaces. To address the U.S. Army/CBD need for such a fieldable, rapid, NIST-certified, quantitative bio-indicator system, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Spores Viability Detection (SVD) system that consists of (1) spore strips made of different materials that are inoculated with Bacillus thuringiensis Al Hakam spores and (2) a hand-held fluorometer. The SVD system will be a fieldable, rapid (35 min), sensitive, reproducible tool for assessment of the viability of decontaminated indicator spores in an easy-to-perform three-step assay protocol. In Phase I, POC will demonstrate the feasibility of the SVD system by developing a reproducible spore preparation protocol that meets the Army/CBD requirements, fabricating a fieldable fluorometer prototype, and demonstrating its ability to quantitatively measure live/dead spores after viability staining. In Phase II, POC plans to optimize the SVD system design and performance parameters including sensitivity and accuracy of the fluorometer and development of spore strips made of different materials that are inoculated with 6, 7, and 8 logs of the spores.