Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: DHP14-004

Description

The obesity epidemic has tremendous repercussions for our armed forces. Being overweight or obese is the number one medical reason why young adults cannot enlist. TRICARE spends over $1 billion a year on treating weight-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease in military personnel and their families. Hence, there is a need for a discreet non-invasive daily assessment method to test the propensity to gain or lose weight in the immediate future such that action to prevent the weight gain/loss can be taken prior to actually gaining/losing weight. To address this Defense Health Program (DHP) need, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new rapid-feedback, non-invasive weight loss/gain indicator (WeightLOGIC) test for daily assessment of an individual?s state of fat storage metabolism. WeightLOGIC is based on a lateral-flow immunochromatographic technology formatted into a toothpick-like stick, a ?test pick?, and is formulated to colorimetrically measure the presence of salivary adipokines as indicators of potential for weight gain/loss. In Phase I, POC will identify suitable salivary biomarkers and develop the test-pick for salivary adiponectin with desired accuracy levels (75-90%). In Phase II, POC will optimize and validate WeightLOGIC and prepare for manufacturing and approval with FDA.