AGAVE BIOSYSTEMS INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: A08-174
AGAVE BIOSYSTEMS INC. — SBIR Phase II award from Department of Defense.
- Amount
- $1,291,860
- Agency
- Department of Defense · Army
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase II
- Topic
- A08-174
- Solicitation
- 2008.3
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- NY
- Period
- 2010-04-09 → 2012-05-08
Description
The rapid evaluation of drinking water toxicity in the field is a necessity for the safety of our soldiers. To achieve field portability and sensitive screening for identification of toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) a handheld device that is biologically-based and easy to use with components that remain viable for 6 months would be ideal. In Phase I, Agave BioSystems proposed to develop an accurate and efficient cell-based biosensor using engineered yeast to rapidly evaluate toxicity in drinking water. Phase I results were highly successful in that Agave BioSystems developed a yeast biosensor exploiting yeast strains engineered to report changes in fluorescence upon exposure to chemical stress, resulting in proof-of-concept for this novel biosensor. This methodology utilized Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast measuring differences in GFP expression to ensure TIC detection accuracy establishing proof-of-concept for rapid detection of a range of toxicants between MEG and HLC. Additionally, this novel yeast strain can be lyophilized for long term storage and is expected to be responsive to several classes of TICs.