Publications Details

Portable diagnostic device for the detection of bacteria in ultra-low resource environemnts

Harper, Jason C.; Finley, Melissa F.; Carson, Bryan; Edwards, Thayne L.; Bachand, George D.; Arndt, William

Anthrax poses a significant threat to National Security as demonstrated by the terrorist attacks targeting the US Postal Service and Hart Building. Anthrax outbreaks commonly occur in livestock. Consequently, Bacillus anthracis is routinely isolated, propagated, and maintained to diagnose the disease. This practice increases laboratories' repositories of the agent, escalating the risk that it can be stolen. We have developed BaDX (2014 R&D100 Awardee), a credit-card sized diagnostic device for use in ultra-low resource environments that is low cost, requires no power, instrumentation or equipment to operate, no cold chain, self-decontaminates post-assay, and is operable by individuals with little/no technical training.