Biology faces enrollment increase

A team of engineers and biologists from the UNM Health Sciences Center and Sandia Labs created an instrument that will help detect biological warfare agents and expedite the diagnosis of infections.

Biosensor lead inventor Richard Larson said national anthrax scares inspired him to create an instrument that aids response teams in identifying a suspicious substance. He said in 2005 the Defense Intelligence Agency granted the center funds to develop the idea, and researchers decided the instrument could have other uses.

“It’s a platform that allows us to adapt it to the detection of a lot of different infections,” Larson said. ”When we decided to look for civilian applications and medical uses, we adapted it to a variety of more complex viruses and bacteria.”

The instrument has two prototypes, but Larson said his team is working to make the instrument available to health care professionals. Right now, it has two components, a set of molecules that capture the detectable virus or bacteria, and a surface acoustic wave detector, which generates a sound wave when a particle of interest is captured.

Steve Casalnouvo, Sandia National Laboratories project manager, said the biosensor will hasten diagnoses, but scientists are debating whether it makes the diagnosis cheaper.

“I will tell you that this instrument will certainly simplify medical care,” he said. “It will get results much faster than current approaches. It will allow tests to be done in a doctor’s office or an emergency room without having to take some sample off to a medical diagnostic lab.”

Researchers are now working with Adaptive Methods, a manufacturer in Washington, D.C., to figure out an efficient manufacturing process. Once researchers perfect the process, they will submit it for FDA approval.

After that, Larson said, the device will be available to health care professionals. He said his team’s long-term goal is to make the device available for at-home use, but that requires more development.

“What we’ve been able to do is develop a process to build one or two of these,” he said. “In order to build a lot of them, you actually have to develop a manufacturing process that is able to produce a large number of them. That scale of process is a pretty significant technological challenge, and that’s our current challenge.”