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Photonic Molecular Probe®

Chemical & Biological Agents

Today the United States government is very concerned about the threat of terrorism and armed conflict with the use of chemical weapons (CW) and/or biological weapons (BW). During the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, unprecedented preparations were undertaken to cope with the health consequences of terrorist attacks involving chemical or biological agents. During the Gulf War, U.S. and allied forces suffered from a lack of reliable biological agent detection systems. Subsequently, a number of detection systems have been developed. These include: SMART (Sensitive Membrane Antigen Rapid Test), JBPDS (Joint Biological Point Detection, Biological Integrated Detection System), and IBAD (Interim Biological Agent Detector). To improve its capability to detect BW exposure, DOD currently is developing BW agent detection systems. However, systems that will provide real-time warnings that would enable troops to take protective measures prior to exposure are a long way off. The United States Air Force is actively pursuing the development of light sources for the mid-IR (3-5 microns) and far-IR (8-12 microns) atmospheric windows for infrared countermeasures and remote sensing of CW and BW agents. Army is pursuing the Biological Defense Program to limit the effects of large area biological warfare attacks.

Although the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention bans biological agents, biological weapons programs are proliferating at the national and subnational levels. It is recognized that improved capabilities must be developed to rapidly recognize an incident and characterize the agents involved. The major BA/BW risks involve anthrax and Clostridium botulinum toxins, cryptococcosis, escherichia coli, haemophilus influenzae, brucellosis (undulant fever), coccidioidomycosis (San Joaquin Valley or desert fever), psittacosis (parrot fever), yersina pestis (the Black Death of the 14th Century), tularemia (rabbit fever), malaria, cholera, typhoid, bubonic plague, cobra venom, shellfish toxin, botulinal toxin, saxitoxin, ricin, smallpox, shigella flexneri, s. dysenteriae (Shiga bacillus), salmonella, staphylococcus enterotoxin B, hemorrhagic fever, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, histoplasma capsulatum, pneumonic plague, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, dengue fever, Rift Valley fever, diphtheria, melioidosis, glanders, tuberculosis, infectious hepatitis, encephalitides, blastomycosis, nocardiosis, yellow fever, typhus, tricothecene mycotoxin, aflatoxin, and Q fever.

Among the CW agents of concern are sarin, mustard gas, tabun, ademsite, nervegas, hydrogen cyanide, tear gases, arsines, psychotomimetic agents, and toxins, whose chemical formulas and stereochemisitry are known. The molecules of these BW/CW agents have no or low spatial symmetry, which implies that they should be evidence the stereo-sensitivity of circular dichroism, and are thus susceptible to measurement with Xoetronics’ Photonic Molecular Probe® once their optical dichroic signatures are obtained. The dichroic signatures of these agents will be especially strong in the UV where the in vitro measurements will be made. Moreover, the PMP can be effectively used for molecules of high symmetry with little of no natural stereo-sensitivity. This can be achieve via an RF resonance technique, described in the patent, that breaks the symmetry in induces a pseudo chirality.

Among the systems developed to detect BW and CW agents, the Army has the Biological Integrated Detection System (BIDS), which consists of 5 major subcomponents: (1) Vehicle, (2) Shelter, (3) Auxiliary Equipment, (4) Power, and (5) Biological Detection Suite. The system consists of various Biological Detection equipment, among them the High Volume Aerodynamic Particle Sizer (HVAPS), Liquid Sampler (LS), Biological Sampler, Flow Cytometer (FCM), and Threshold Workstation (THS). In the future, the Armed Forces will integrate the Biological Detector (BD) into the BIDS. The Chemical Biological Mass Spectrometer (CBMS)—a biological detecting equipment will be integrated into the BIDS in the future.

The United States deployed several types of chemical agent detectors in the Gulf War as part of an integrated system for dealing with possible chemical warfare (CW). Germany provided 60 FOX Reconnaissance Systems, sophisticated armored vehicles equipped with mass spectrometers for identification of chemical contamination. The M8A1 automatic chemical agent alarm was the primary U.S. system designed to provide early warning of chemical attack during the Gulf War. To address deficiencies in CW detection, the DOD is developing the Advanced Chemical Agent Detector/Alarm (ACADA). The Photonic Molecular Probe an extremely competitive candidate to fulfill this role.

Xoetronics’ patented Photonic Molecular Probe® is a non-destructive/non-invasive monitoring device. The device is capable of probing and unambiguously identifying quantitatively a target molecule within a mixed specimen. It is multi-faceted in that it incorporates several physically distinct modes of operation. Because of its operational capabilities, the PMP has a myriad of potential applications including CW and BW agent monitoring, food inspection, and environmental pollution. It operates in real time and is designed to be hand-held, approximately the size of a paper back novel. The Photonic Molecular Probe® uses patented signal processing methodology.

The Photonic Molecular Probe® uses a specially prepared beam of light along with an extremely sophisticated proprietary signal processing methodology to identify and measure the concentration of target molecule(s). The Photonic Molecular Probe has multiple medical and non-medical applications. Important medical uses include noninvasive monitoring of blood glucose levels, triglyceride levels, hormone levels, licit drug levels and illicit drug detection. Two very important non-medical uses include chemical warfare and biological warfare agent detection. For more information...