Real-time, Ultrasensitive Water Supply System Biosensor

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II proposal seeks expand on the Phase I results to develop an ultra-sensitive, low-cost, highly-redundant, and robust sensor for the detection of biological and chemical agents, and toxins in water supply systems. The sensor developed under this effort will incorporate optical micro-cavities on an integrated micro-photonic platform for rapidly and simultaneously detecting multiple classes of biological and chemical threat agents with a high degree of redundancy. The high level of redundancy enables sensitive detection while minimizing the effects of non-specific binding. Target specificity is achieved through highly selective interactions at the micro-cavity surface. The prototype integrated optical sensor will be tested on threat simulants in our laboratories, and real agents at a DoD facility such as the Water Security Research Test Loop. The results of these tests will provide a critical design review that will ultimately result in a Phase III commercialization product. Working with our commercialization partner, the successful prototype sensor will be transitioned to the marketplace for water quality monitoring applications. In addition, we will target markets for variants of the Phase III sensor in other commercial venues such as clinical diagnostics, molecular diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and analytical chemistry applications.