BioVigilant Systems completed a $4 million series A financing this week. The company has developed patented optical technology instruments that can instantaneously detect the presence of extremely small microbes and bio-agents in air and liquid and determine, on a particle-by-particle basis, the size of each particle, the total quantity of each size of particle, and if each particle is biologic or inert. These results are provided on a real time and continuous basis.
Particles enter the instruments and are funneled to what’s called an ‘interrogation area,’ where they interrupt a laser beam. The scattered light and intrinsic fluorescence of each particle is captured and measured by separate sensors. The way the light ’scatters’ determines the size of each particle, and the presence or absence of fluorescence at certain wavelengths tells us if a particle is biologic or inert and if it meets the set alarm criterion. All this is accomplished in real time.
Says Battelle Ventures General Partner Ralph Taylor-Smith, who has joined the BioVigilant Systems Board of Directors: “Most other analytical methods, such as PCR (or polymerase chain reaction, which is used by the U.S. Postal Service to detect anthrax, for example) and biological cell culture, can take from a day to more than a week to go from sample to results.
“The most common analysis or test method is the conventional plate culture method, whereby airborne samples are periodically taken and grown, and require two to nine days for results,” he continues. “Newer, ‘rapid methods’ can reduce that testing time, but are cumbersome and expensive. And for critical applications in homeland security or pharmaceutical clean-room manufacturing, even a day time-lapse in microbial detection is a major disadvantage.”
He notes that in the event of a biological attack, test results might not come back before disease symptoms occur and, potentially, after lives are already lost. Similarly, he says, in pharmaceutical manufacturing, if microbial contamination occurs, then affected batches of medical drugs could be continuously produced until test results were obtained, resulting in potential losses of millions of dollars due to drug contamination and/or product liability. “So,” he says, “knowing the size and biologic/inert status of particles in real time is of significant importance.”
Besides the advantages of real-time detection, he says, “The IMD instruments are small and lightweight with low power consumption, allowing remote and wireless deployment, additional key advantages in the homeland-security sector.”
[thanks, Battelle Ventures]
