Fairway Medical Technologies Inc. has received a $900,000 three year contract from the Department of the Navy to apply their optoacoustic technology to the real-time detection of blood-borne pathogens and biological warfare agents under battlefield conditions. This grant is part of a larger $3 million project led by Professor Randolph Glickman, Principal Investigator from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
“This research was done to develop a rugged battlefield instrument capable of detecting biological agents such as anthrax, plague, smallpox, and others with the speed, accuracy, sensitivity, and reliability of analytical techniques and instruments found in the state-of-the-art laboratory today”, said Dr. Glickman.
According to Norman Barsalou, Project Co-Investigator, “early front line detection of biological threats using this kind of rugged battlefield system will provide critical information that can save lives as well as support fast well informed command decision making”.
The grant will be carried out as a collaborative project between UTHSC, Fairway Medical Technologies, and the Naval Health Research Center Detachment Directed Energy Bioeffects Laboratory. After completing the R&D part of the project, Fairway will manufacture the devices for the Navy and other DOD customers.
