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

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发技术，以提高执法（LE）在打击美国非法药物流行方面的有效性，非法药物流行导致2018年超过6.7万例药物过量死亡。一种负担得起的、有效的现场药物检测系统，优于传统的颜色检测试剂盒和基于拉曼的检测系统，将解决这一挑战，特别是因为广泛使用的颜色检测试剂盒已经过时、危险，而且容易出现高假阳性率。这种新型药物检测系统将提高现场药物鉴定的准确性、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减少他们所服务社区的危险药物供应。这一创新有可能扩展到其他市场，包括医疗诊断和环境分析。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目将实施一个新的系统，用于LE的现场推定药物测试和药物情报收集。传统的颜色测试是不准确的，而且存在严重缺陷，往往导致在普通药物和新型药物类似物进入非法物质市场时无法准确检测。利用拉曼光谱的商用手持设备优于颜色测试，但对于地方和州LE机构来说过于昂贵，无法广泛采用。研究目标包括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，一种使用药物指示化学传感器的采样设备，以及由移动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药物特征。预期的技术成果将是手持式光谱仪设计和药物取样装置的优化，受控物质的新型光致发光化学传感器的鉴定，以及提高样品数据分析准确性的软件。这一系统将建立对毒品特征和非法毒品贩运的区域趋势进行法医分析的工具。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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and Raman-based test systems, would address this challenge, particularly because the widely used color test kits are outdated, hazardous, and susceptible to a high false positive rate.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.