Compact Force Amplified Biosensor for Field Detection of Land Mines and UXOs

The number of mines buried throughout the world and the cost to remove them demonstrate an urgent need for field-deployable detection technologies. Current technologies being developed are large and not man-portable. Biosensors and immunoassay techniques are excellent detectors for these low vapor pressure explosive targets due to their inherent sensivity and specificity at the ppb and ppt levels. Systems & Processes Engineering Corporation (SPEC) proposes to develop a Force Amplified Biosensor (FAB) for Unexploded Ordinances (UXO) detection using novel and highly sensitive atomic microscopy cantilevers and high affinity receptors which will have sub-ppt detection capabilities. The combination of these technologies will allow development of a highly sensitive, miniaturized biosensor which will require only a small air sampler for detection of the explosive vapors over a buried land mine. During the Phase I program, SPEC will demonstrate the sensitivity of atomic force microscopy cantilevels with a laboratory breadboard. Working with Drs. Brent L. Iverson and George Georgio of the University of Texas at Austin, SPEC will also demonstrate the systematic optimization of the TNT antibody using saturation mutagenesis, a patented technique. In Phase II, SPEC will construct and test a FAB/UXO detection system prototype.