SBIR Phase I: Novel Field Drug Test System for Law Enforcement

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是提高执法（LE）在打击美国非法药物流行病的有效性，与药物使用相关的死亡率每年都在增加，2017年超过72，000名美国人。为了控制疫情总统？2019年的预算请求要求联邦拨款300亿美元用于打击非法药物使用，这为传统颜色测试套件和基于拉曼光谱的测试系统的现有市场提供了商业机会。对LE和法医供应经销商进行的多次采访表明，他们已准备好采用新技术来取代目前使用的药物测试试剂盒。这种新型药物测试系统将提高现场药物识别的准确性、可靠性、易用性、安全性和可负担性，并允许现场使用数据分析，这将有助于从街道上清除危险药物。这一创新还将增进对麻醉药品与碘化铜（I）等各种药物指示材料反应的化学和光致发光特性的了解，并验证利用这类信息查明可疑药物的有效性。这是一项面向LE市场的无线技术，有可能最终扩展到医疗诊断和环境分析市场。这一小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将开发一种用于LE现场药物测试的新型系统。传统的基于化学品的颜色测试已经过时，并且存在严重缺陷，给最终用户和其他缉毒生态系统带来了问题。这些问题包括假阳性药物测试和缺乏识别每年引入美国社区的新药的能力。手持式拉曼设备等上级测试方法对于LE机构来说过于昂贵，无法广泛采用，因此需要低成本的技术创新解决方案。这项创新利用了光致发光光谱仪的四个主要组成部分：手持式光谱仪，药物采样设备，具有匹配算法的移动的应用程序以及对参考药物标准云数据库的访问。第一阶段项目的目标是实现一个高保真的最小可行产品药物测试系统。对替代荧光药物指示剂的研究有望产生具有高选择性和灵敏度的药物鉴定新方法。这些方法将被实施到药物采样装置中。作为软件和硬件优化的一部分，LE内部的beta测试人员将帮助识别系统缺陷，并为开发可用性和人体工程学方面的增强功能提供投入。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to improve law enforcement (LE) effectiveness in battling the illegal drug epidemic in the U.S. Death rates related to drug use have been increasing yearly and exceeded 72,000 Americans in 2017. To control this epidemic, the President?s 2019 Budget Request called for $30B in federal funding to combat illegal drug use, presenting a commercial opportunity to disrupt the existing market for conventional color test kits and Raman-based testing systems. Numerous interviews conducted with LE and forensic supply resellers demonstrate a readiness to adopt a new technology to replace drug test kits currently in use. This novel drug test system will improve the accuracy, reliability, ease of use, safety, and affordability of field drug identification and permit field use data analysis, which will help remove dangerous drugs from the streets. This innovation will also enhance the understanding of the chemical and photoluminescent properties of narcotic drugs reacting with various drug-indicator materials such as copper(I) iodide and validate the use of such information to identify suspected drugs. This is a wireless technology for the LE market sector, with the potential to eventually expand into the medical diagnostics and environmental analysis markets.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a novel system for on-site field drug testing for LE. Conventional chemical-based color tests are outdated and highly flawed, causing issues for end users and the rest of the drug enforcement ecosystem. These issues include false positive drug tests and the lack of ability to identify new drugs that are introduced into U.S. communities each year. Superior testing methods such as handheld Raman devices are too expensive for LE agencies to widely adopt, thus a low-cost technologically-innovative solution is necessary. This innovation leverages photoluminescence spectroscopy in four main components: a handheld spectrometer, a drug-sampling device, a mobile app with a matching algorithm and access to a cloud database of reference drug standards. The goal of this phase I project is to achieve a high-fidelity Minimum Viable Product drug testing system. The investigation of alternative fluorescent drug-indicators is anticipated to result in novel methods for drug identification with high selectivity and sensitivity. These methods will be implemented into a drug-sampling device. As a part of software and hardware optimization, beta testers within LE will help identify system shortcomings and provide input to develop enhancements for usability and ergonomics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.