By Judy Silber
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Published on April 4, 2003,
Pp c01, Contra
Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA)
Faster, cheaper, better is the motto of the U.S. space program. Add two more -- smaller and lighter -- and that's the direction devices for detecting biological or chemical weapons are headed.
Analysts say that an array of technologies already in the field will help identify chemical or biological warfare agents should Saddam Hussein use them on U.S. troops. But for the future, they say there's plenty of room for innovation, creating opportunities for companies interested in this specialized area of the defense industry.
New machines under development should speed up and automate detection processes that now require skilled technicians. Researchers are working to reduce false positive signals so that machines can effectively monitor public places for homeland defense in addition to the battlefield. Smaller, more versatile, handheld devices are also on the horizon, rather than the bulkier equipment in use today.
" I think what they have in Iraq is perfectly capable of doing a very good job," said James Smith, a technical analyst who has done work for Frost & Sullivan, a consulting firm. "But any time you can make them less expensive, more specific and sensitive, that's the way to go."
Allen Northrup, the chief executive officer of Pleasanton-based MicroFluidic Systems Inc., recognized the military's need for fully automated systems nearly a decade ago. An engineer at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, he and others began designing a machine that could quickly process DNA samples to identify pathogens. The aim: to speed up a widely accepted but slow process called Polymerase Chain Reaction, or PCR.
Northrup's innovations helped reduce the time it takes to do PCR from several hours to less than 20 minutes. Sunnyvale-based Cepheid eventually licensed the patent and the U.S. Postal Service is now testing a Cepheid machine for use in anthrax detection.
And wanting to take the technology a step farther, scientists at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory have miniaturized the hardware into a handheld device.
Lawrence Livermore and Cepheid have made great strides, said Patrick Fitch, program leader for chemical and biological national security at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. But the front-end of the system, where DNA is extracted from bacterial or viral samples, still needs improvement.
The ideal system won't require any human intervention. It will simply collect an air sample and process it, telling its user whether dangerous pathogens are circulating. But automatically preparing DNA collected from an environment where wind has mixed in dust, mud or sand can be difficult.
Since he left Cepheid in 1997, Northrup has turned his energies to just that problem. He's using microfluidics, tiny circuits that can conduct liquids, to fully automate sample preparation. The machine collects an air sample, then pumps it through a series of chambers. Bacterial cells are opened, the DNA extracted and analyzed using PCR.
Even with the sampling problem solved, it will likely take multiple technologies to lower the number of false alarms, Fitch said. For example, another technology developed by Lawrence Livermore also detects bacterial and viral pathogens, but through a completely different methodology called flow cytometry. If used in combination with PCR, the rate of false alarms will go down, he said.
In fact, it will probably take a smorgasbord of new devices to cover the entire gamut of biological and chemical threats.
" We have SUVs and minivans and sedans and sports cars," said Arthur Pontau, manager of the microfluidics department at Sandia National Laboratories. "There will probably be a broad spectrum of different types of tools used in different situations."
To detect biotoxins such as ricin or botulinin toxin, chemicals not recognized by PCR, Sandia has developed a handheld device. The idea is that first responders such as police officers and firefighters can sample a suspect site and have answers within minutes, using a box smaller than an office telephone.
The licenses for the biotoxin and other detection technologies have stirred great interest in the business community, said Laura Santos, business development manager at Sandia. Worldwide defense contractors, never interested in biowarfare, have been calling the lab for information. They recognize a need, but they also see an opportunity, she said.
