Luminex won a potentially $11.6 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency to develop a prototype portable diagnostic system capable of use in the field for rapidly detecting infection by biothreat agents and biomarkers indicative of systemic disease. The hand-held system will be able to detect both protein and nucleic acid markers to aid diagnosis of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), which can develop as a result of blood infections in conventional combat and biowarfare.
“The flexibility and scalability of our multiplexing technology allow for the measurement of RNA, DNA, and proteins with the same system, aiding rapid and accurate diagnosis of these severe conditions,” remarks Amy Altman, Ph.D., vp Luminex Biodefense. “Development of a field-deployable device using our technology has the potential to provide significant advancement in biothreat detection.”
