Sensors for Wide-Area Evaluation of Pathogen Threat Potential

This phase II SBIR continues the development of a proprietary dielectric spectroscopy system for determining the treat potential of biological pathogens. Dielectric measurements are widely used to study a broad range of biological activities, from individual metabolic and signaling pathway activities to biomass determination in bio-reactors. Our approach uses powerful new measurement methods which greatly increase sensitivity and specificity while simultaneously reducing engineering and assay development complexities and costs. This will result in a cost-effective field-deployable system which can rapidly detect and analyze viability and threat potential bacterial pathogens. In this Phase II program, we will develop hardware, reagents and protocols for the analysis of B. anthracis spores which have been subjected to neutralizing agents. We will determine the extent of spore viability by analyzing specific spore germination responses, along with the presence or absence of essential metabolic pathways. The resulting prototype system at the end of this program will be ready for final commercialization for this application. In addition, the basic engineering and assay challenges will be sufficiently well defined so that the system can be adapted to most bacterial pathogens, as well as dual-use applications in food and water safety, drug development, and life sciences research.