Mobile Biothreat Detection for First Responders

BioFlow, a handheld biological threat detection system under development at The Mitre Corporation's Bio-Nano Laboratory could one day help emergency response teams identify biological threats on site, saving time, money and possibly lives. Mitre engineers have demonstrated the concept for several government sponsors, including the Defense and Homeland Security departments. BioFlow combines existing technology and sampling techniques to identify a variety of threats, including bacterial agents that cause anthrax, viruses and clinical markers such as thyroid stimulating hormone. Furthermore, it could identify targets in a range of samples, including water, soil, blood or urine. The BioFlow process relies on anti-body-coated magnetic microspheres to extract and identify specific targets, such as bacteria, hormones or viruses.