SBIR Phase II: Kits for the Detection of Bioterror Pathogens

这一小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目建议开发用于检测生物恐怖病原体的现场可部署试剂盒。这些试剂盒将由针对生物恐怖病原体表达的蛋白质毒素的荧光标记抗体组成，依靠强大的抗体-抗原相互作用进行检测，并使用配备廉价预先测量试剂的简单层析试纸进行快速层析识别。在第一阶段项目中，合成了新的水溶性蓝色发光报告荧光团，这些荧光团具有极高的光稳定性，在任何类型的光条件下都可以很容易地可视化。将这些荧光团连接到炭疽芽孢杆菌的抗体上作为最初的概念验证，并开发了将这些报告荧光团连接到单克隆、多克隆或重组抗体上的方法。第二阶段项目的目标是优化试剂和层析，合成用于多重病原体检测的新荧光团，设计和组装原型试剂盒，并测试和验证试剂盒。该项目的商业应用将在国土安全领域。预计拟议的工具包价格低廉、用途广泛，相对未经培训的急救人员(如警察、消防员、护理人员、危险品人员和其他应急小组)易于使用。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project proposes to develop field deployable kits for the detection of bio-terror pathogens. These kits would consist of fluorescent-labeled antibodies directed against protein toxins expressed by bio-terror pathogens, relying for detection on strong antibody-antigen interactions and fast chromatographic discrimination using simple chromatography strips supplied with inexpensive pre-measured reagents. In Phase I project, new water soluble blue-emitting reporter fluorophores were synthesized that were extremely photo-stable and could be easily visualized under any type of light conditions. These fluorophores were conjugated to an antibody against Bacillus anthracis as the initial proof-of-concept, and methodology was developed to attach these reporter fluorophores to monoclonal, polyclonal or recombinant antibodies. The objectives of Phase II project are to optimize reagents and chromatography, to synthesize new fluorophores for multiplexed pathogen detection, to design and assemble prototype kits, and to test and validate the kits.The commercial application of this project will be in the area of homeland security. The proposed kits are expected to be inexpensive, versatile, and easy to use by relatively untrained first responders (such as police, firefighters, paramedics, hazmat personnel, other emergency response teams).