RAPID TURN-AROUND TESTING FOR BIOTERRORISM AGENTS

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project, over Phase I and Phase II, is to develop and validate a new diagnostic platform for biowarfare detection that provides ultrafast design and implementation. Today, both the scientific and security communities believe that advances in biotechnology have increased the concern for misuse in biological weapon programs. As reports of anthrax attacks across the United States multiplied late last year, an increasing concern grew that new strains with altered genomes may appear. Therefore, new diagnostic technologies that provide quick turnaround assays to previously unknown biowarfare strains are needed. To this end, we developed a novel platform, GENE-CODE 2.0, that provides an ultraquick turn-around to real-time PCR genetic testing. GENE-CODE 2.0 employs an expanded genetic information system (AEGIS) that allows for site-specific enzymatic incorporation of reporter molecules during PCR. The platform has already been demonstrated to the commercial market for ultrasensitive quantitative anthrax detection. In Phase I we will design and demonstrate the platform on CDC Category A biological terror agents. In Phase II we will develop multiplexed systems to analyze multiple genetic sites within a given biowarfare agent with internal assay capabilities that will allow the manufacturer to change sequence specificity in an ultrafast manner.