CORNERSTONE RESEARCH GROUP INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: A20-124

Description

During missions, military personnel can be exposed to a variety of biological and toxic hazards, either during an epidemic outbreak or directly targeted via biochemical warfare. Currently, there are many passive antiviral and antimicrobial material, as well as active solutions that use power and burdensome equipment to capture these microorganisms. Unfortunately, there are few low or no burden solutions to passively capture bacteria and viruses that users could have been exposed to during a mission. The solutions that do exist are not able to be integrated into current PPE, and they are difficult to place in a location that is representative of the user’s breathing space, which is critical in determining if the user is at risk of being exposed to these biological hazards. The ability to capture and sustain these microorganisms is critical in order to determine the biological exposure hazards that were present during a mission.         Cornerstone Research Group Inc. (CRG) proposes to develop a passive biological air sampling patch, which will adhere to masks of respiratory systems that are already worn by the user. CRG will construct this air sampler with a variety of layers that will help to capture, retain biological viability, and improved extraction efficiency for post analysis. The passive air sampling patch CRG proposes, will mitigate any hinderances to job function which can occur with active methods of biological air sampling. It is low maintenance, easily donned and doffed, and will successfully capture bacteria and virus particles in a way which will allow for common biological lab testing procedures. Understanding the microorganisms that users may have been exposed to can allow for early quarantine, preventative or treatment for illnesses before symptoms may even be present that could result from these exposures. This technology can help to decrease the quantity and duration of illnesses and the number of deaths that can result from missions with high biological exposure risks.