Espira, Inc. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: A15-064

Description

Espira has developed a Biohazard Analyzer (BA) for rapid pathogen detection. Espira’s Biohazard Analyzer goes beyond lab culturing of indicator coliforms and E.coli by detecting a suite of specific bacteria, parasites and viruses in the same test. Total organisms and viable organisms are separately reported for each pathogen. A typical Biohazard Analyzer test cycle is under 1 hour. This includes automated sample collection, concentration, and detection and can be operated by minimally trained personnel. For this proposal we are applying our BA towards monitoring of 5 bacterial targets, 5 parasite targets and 5 viral targets. The current approaches to monitor these pathogens are laborious and time consuming. None of the devices is multiplexed enough to accommodate such large variety of pathogens as requested in the solicitation. Typically, more than 24 hours are required with relatively large lab requirements and trained technicians to detect the content of pathogens in food and water. In this proposal to Army we are planning to test the feasibility of our technology towards an integrated (single process) and automated instrument for near-real time in line diagnostics with 100 ml water and 25 gm food sample seeded with known quantity of pathogens of interest.