Award Data

Many believe the greatest threat to our troops and homeland security are attacks using biological weapons. Recent developments of biological warfare agents parallel advances in microbiology, viruses and bacteria can be rendered more lethal through genetic engineering, and many toxins can be mass-produced. However, detecting biological agents is difficult and time consuming because there are thousa ...

There is a critical need for rapid, accurate measurement of serum cholinesterase activity in the field to provide a timely determination of nerve agent exposure. The overall objective of the project is to develop an easy-to-use analytical system consistingof small, inexpensive (and therefore disposable) silicon microchips used with a portable instrument, thus permitting field cholinesterase measur ...

OmniSite proposes to continue Phase I effort to develop aptamer-based assays to anthrax spores and SEB for detection instruments based on ECL, FP, and FRET formats. OmniSite will compare the different assay formats to determine which of thesedemonstrates the most sensitivity and specificity, as well as being robust, cost effective, and facile. Performance characteristics of the most sensitive ...

The early genomic responses of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to in vitro infection with specific microbial pathogens are being assessed by DNA microarray technology to determine host gene expression

A thermal infrared imaging spectrometer is proposed for the remote detection and identification of surface contaminants. The instrument will use a high power, pulsing CO2 laser to vaporize the liquids while it scans the target scene generating 3Dspectral-images. The instrument will be pre-programmed with a library of contamination filters that can automatically identify contaminants that could b ...