Large Area Opioid Identification by Bioengineered Broad-Spectrum Receptors

There is an immediate need for the U.S. Department of Defense to rapidly map large area surfaces (i.e. military vehicles, individual protective equipment, clandestine labs, etc.) potentially contaminated by trace amounts of opioids (i.e. 0.1 mg/m2). This capability will allow proper decontamination or avoidance of the contaminated areas to reduce the health risk to military personnel and first responders. Currently, there is no technology in the commercial marketspace that is capable of identification of trace amounts of opioids in large contaminated areas. Zymeron proposes to develop a solution-based spray formulation based on water-soluble mu-opioid receptor (wsMOR) which is capable of binding trace concentrations of opioid(s) in the environment and providing amplified naked-eye visual mapping of large surfaces in less than 10 minutes.