InteliSpark client SensoDx, LLC. has been awarded a Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant worth $999,998.25. The grant is for the STTR project “Field Drug Identification Kit.” The goal of the STTR project is that the proposed product is a microfluidics point-of-care (POC) cartridge, in conjunction with a miniaturized instrument, that together permit real-time detection of illicit drugs in the field.
Illicit drug trafficking has increasingly been used to fund terrorist groups since the end of the Cold War. As illicit drugs increasingly finance terrorism, soldiers in the U.S. Army are increasingly playing an active role in identifying these drugs in difficult and demanding environments.
Over the past decade, the John T. McDevitt laboratory located at New York University has pioneered the development of a series of powerful programmable bio-nano-chip sensor systems that are suitable for a wide range of chemical, biological and cellular assays. Developed initially as “electronic taste chips”, these mini-sensor systems are fashioned with the same micro-fabrication methods used by the microelectronics industry. These devices are created such that they can be reprogrammed for new applications in an efficient manner, while at the same time yielding sensors with strong analytical performance characteristics.
Programmable Bio-Nano-Chip (p-BNC) technology that will permit detection of illicit drugs in the field. During Phase II, SensoDx plans to: a) expand the classes of drugs that it targets from three to five, by the addition of drugs representative of a Cathinine and a hallucinogen; and b) increase the panel size for the detectable drugs from three to eight drugs. The ultimate goal is to detect all eight drugs in a single test that takes less than 5 minutes.