Chemical Warfare Agent (CWA) Lightweight Field-Portable (Hand-Held) Medical Diagnostic Tool

Chemical weapon nerve agents (CWNAs) are extremely deadly substances, and as a key element in the arsenals of rogue nations and terrorists who are willing to use them, they represent a constant threat to our military and civilian personnel. Current methods for detecting CWNA exposure in individuals have many deficiencies, including excessive false-positives (triggered by pesticides) and false-negatives (from environmental interferences), the required use of labile enzymes, the inability to specifically identify the nerve agent, and the need for consumables. Those methods also rely on equipment that is cumbersome in the field. Semorex and its expert collaborators propose to prove the feasibility of developing an inexpensive, reliable, hand-held diagnostic device to aid first-responders and other medical personnel in rapidly detecting/identifying CWNAs. The device will be based on our novel, proprietary recognition technology—molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), developed with previous DOD SBIR support. During Phase I we will use DFP (diisopropylfluorophosphate, a commercially available toxic OP agent) to establish proof-of-concept for the basic reactions using commercial serum samples to show that the required sensitivity, reactivity, specificity and stability can be obtained. The anticipated Phase I results will set the stage for a larger Phase II prototyping/demonstration project.