At the scene of a crisis, first responders may need to quickly determine if a biological weapon is present. Sandia’s MicroChemLab biological detector, a handheld system that rapidly detects and identifies biotoxins and viruses, is being developed to answer that need.
MicroChemLab draws on Sandia’s cutting-edge microfluidics research, which is vigorously probing the chemical physics of microfluidic transport and actively developing high-performance, transport-based microfluidic systems. The system has proven to be very robust; a single chip can operate for hundreds of analyses without clogging, and the device can operate for 5 hours on lithium batteries.
To make MicroChemLab more practical to use, Sandia is working on an automated sampling system. Such a system has been demonstrated but requires further refinement. We’re also developing a library of bioagent signatures and signature recognition methods.
MicroChemLab is proving its potential in a variety of uses, including automatic water inspection. We’re incorporating the underlying technology into an integrated chemical and biological detection system called BioBriefcase.
Sandia is also exploring other commercial options:
Sandia seeks commercialization partners for handheld chemical analysis and detection system.
