The National Institutes of Health Supports Technology Under Development by BioDetection Instruments, LLC

Fayetteville, AR — BioDetection Instruments, LLC has received a $100,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research award from the National Institutes of Health. The project will demonstrate feasibility for the development of a reagentless biosensor for online monitoring of microbial contaminants in drinking water. The biosensor is based on incorporating several newly emerging technologies into BioDetection Instruments’ proprietary sensing platform. In Phase II, the research will be extended to develop a multichannel biosensor system for online monitoring of multiple waterborne pathogens.

The CDC reports that each year, 4 billion episodes of diarrhea result in an estimated 2 million deaths, and waterborne bacterial infections may account for as many as half of these episodes and deaths. The prevention of disease outbreaks relies on timely and efficient detection of disease-causing microorganisms. However, the detection of bacterial contaminants in drinking water still relies on cell growth-based methods, which are extremely time-consuming, typically requiring at least 24 hours and complicated multi-steps to confirm the analysis. Even current rapid methods such as ELISA and PCR still require enrichment of samples for 8-24 hours and take several hours to get only qualitative (positive/negative) results. Part of the challenge that faces both regulatory agencies and water plants, charged with protecting public health, is to find better, cost-effective, faster technologies for rapid detection of waterborne pathogens, such as those being developed by BioDetection Instruments.

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