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

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发技术，以提高打击美国非法药物流行的执法（LE）效率，这导致2018年超过67，000例药物过量死亡。一个经济实惠，有效的现场药物测试系统，上级传统的颜色测试套件和拉曼测试系统，将解决这一挑战，特别是因为广泛使用的颜色测试套件是过时的，危险的，并容易受到高假阳性率。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，并允许数据分析，这将有助于LE减少他们所服务的社区的危险药物供应。这一创新有潜力扩展到其他市场，包括医疗诊断和环境分析。这一小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将实施一个新的系统，用于现场推定药物测试和收集LE的药物情报。传统的颜色测试是不准确和高度缺陷，往往导致无法准确地检测常见药物和新型药物类似物，因为它们被引入非法物质市场。利用拉曼光谱的市售手持设备比颜色测试优越上级，但是对于当地和州LE机构来说太昂贵而不能广泛采用。研究目标涉及进一步开发一种系统，该系统利用低成本手持式光谱仪中的光致发光光谱，使用药物指示化学传感器的采样设备，以及由移动的应用程序和基于云的技术组成的软件，以帮助识别非法物质和特定的药物特征。预期的技术成果将是优化手持式光谱仪的设计和药物取样装置，确定新的受管制物质光致发光化学传感器，以及提高样本数据分析准确性的软件。 该系统将建立用于药物特征和非法药物贩运区域趋势的法医分析工具。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 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to develop technology that will improve law enforcement (LE) effectiveness in combatting the U.S. illegal drug epidemic, which contributed to over 67,000 drug overdose deaths in 2018. An affordable, effective field drug test system, superior to conventional color test kits and Raman-based test systems, would address this challenge, particularly because the widely used color test kits are outdated, hazardous, and susceptible to a high false positive rate. This novel drug test system will improve the accuracy, reliability, ease of use, safety, and affordability of field drug identification and permit data analysis that will help LE reduce the supply of dangerous drugs from the communities they serve. This innovation has the potential to expand into other markets, including medical diagnostics and environmental analysis.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will implement a novel system for on-site presumptive drug testing and collection of drug intelligence for LE. Conventional color tests are inaccurate and highly flawed, often resulting in failure to accurately detect common drugs and novel drug analogues as they are introduced into the illegal substance market. Commercially available handheld devices that utilize Raman spectroscopy are superior to color test but are too expensive for local and state LE agencies to widely adopt. The research objectives involve further developing a system that leverages photoluminescence spectroscopy in a low-cost handheld spectrometer, a sampling device that uses a drug-indicating chemosensor, and software that consists of a mobile app and cloud-based technology to help identify illegal substances and specific drug signatures. The anticipated technical results will be the optimization of the handheld spectrometer design and drug-sampling device, identification of new photoluminescent chemosensors for controlled substances, and software to enhance the accuracy of the sample data analysis. This system will establish tools for forensic analysis of drug signatures and regional trends in illegal drug trafficking.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.