Handheld CB Aptamer Based MEMS Fluorescence Point Detection Sensor

OmniSite Biodiagnostics, Inc. and its parent company, Systems and Processes Engineering Corporation (SPEC), have extensive experience in both microfluidic, micromechanical (MEMS) and Fluorescence detection technologies. OmniSite proposes to design and prototype a compact, handheld and low power MEMS-Fluorescence sensor capable of simultaneously detecting different biowarfare agents in aqueous samples. OmniSite, in collaboration with Dr. Andrew Ellington's laboratory at UT Austin and Accacia International, will develop DNA Aptamer coated magnetic microbead based fluorescence assays to be analyzed in a prototype MEMS cartridge and ultimately read on a Fluorescence Cartridge Reader. DNA Aptamers are short oligonucleotides that act like antibodies by binding any target against which they are raised with very high affinity and specificity. Aptamers are generated by a process called SELEX (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment) consisting of alternating iterations of affinity selection (from a random DNA library allowed to interact with the immobilized target), washing and PCR amplification of selected DNA sequences that bind the target.