The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) is developing a cellphone-based device to use for pathogen detection. Researchers are developing the technology to collect a sample, analyze the results, geotag the location of the sample, and then send the results to a laboratory for further review which will all be accomplished using a smartphone.
Scientists at ECBC worked with a team at UCLA to adapt the prototype of a plastic clip-on microscope so it will fit on an android phone commonly used by the Army. The device clips directly over the smartphone camera and operates just like a microscope.
The user collects a sample, slides it into the device, and snaps a picture. An application downloaded to the phone will read the sample, analyze the results quickly, and then a clear positive or negative detection of the test agent will be generated. The UCLA team is developing the hardware and the software for the device, with ECBC’s team providing the diagnostic and detection assays that it will use. The research team is focused on testing blood and urine for Salmonella typhimurium, a causative agent for food poisoning. The team plans to add testing for four additional pathogens.
According to Patricia Buckley, the research biologist leading ECBC’s effort on the project, “This technology is taking a common test that is done often in a laboratory and by reducing the size and weight, the technology has the capability to be used in areas without a cell tower nearby, and would be valuable for clinics or hospitals in underdeveloped areas which very often may not have sophisticated testing equipment.”
ECBC has partnered with Holomic, a small business in California to develop a second hardware add-on that can take existing assays in the field and integrate them into the smartphone, making the results more user-friendly and available for archival within the biosurveillance community.
The results can be stored in the phone and later added to a biosurveillance cloud database allowing for an electronic archive of data that will be available to anyone with access to the cloud. The ability to tag the sample’s location is important so further surveillance and monitoring of that area can be done.
The ECBC, UCLA, and Holomic teams will continue to develop the technology which is funded by the Joint Science and Technology Office of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. There are plans in place to begin field tests of the prototype to determine their accuracy and ability to send and receive data.