AnthraxSandia Labs anthrax detector wins national technology transfer award
Bacillus anthracis, the anthrax bacteria, is found in soils worldwide and can cause serious, often fatal, illness in humans and animals. It can survive in harsh conditions for decades. Humans can be exposed through skin contact, inhalation of spores or eating contaminated meat. Currently, samples for testing must be propagated in a laboratory that uses specialized tools requiring a consistent power supply, something often unavailable in the developing world. Sandia National Laboratories won the Federal Laboratory Consortium’s (FLC) 2015 Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer for a credit-card-size device that can detect bacteria that cause anthrax.
Sandia National Laboratories won the Federal Laboratory Consortium’s (FLC) 2015 Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer for a credit-card-size device that can detect bacteria that cause anthrax.
BaDx (Bacillus anthracis Diagnostics) works in places with no power, refrigerated storage, or laboratory equipment. It requires minimal or no training and makes anthrax testing safer, easier, faster, and cheaper.
A Sandia Lab release reports that the annual Award for Excellence recognizes employees of FLC member laboratories and non-laboratory staff who have accomplished outstanding work in transferring federally developed technology. A panel of experts from industry, state and local government, academia, and the federal laboratory system judge the nominations.
A Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project in Sandia’s International Biological Threat Reduction Program led to BaDx. While a large team helped develop the detector, the FLC award recognizes scientists Thayne Edwards, Melissa Finley and Jason Harper.
The technology was licensed to Aquila, a New Mexico woman-owned small business that specializes in the design and manufacture of technologies and services for nuclear security and international safeguards.
“It has been a remarkable experience to not only work with a Sandia research team in developing cool technology, but also with dedicated business partners to transfer that technology to,” Edwards said. “The awards that have recognized these efforts are another reminder to me of the great people I get to work with and the reward of solving difficult problems together.”
Jackie Kerby Moore, Sandia’s manager of Technology and Economic Development and the labs’s representative to the FLC, said the competition for this year’s award was especially tough. “Sandia’s BaDx technology transfer recognition was one of only three selected across all of the Department of Energy laboratories for successful technology development and deployment,” she says. “It is very satisfying to be recognized by our peers.”
A deadly bacteria
Bacillus anthracis, the anthrax bacteria, is found in soils worldwide and can cause serious, often fatal, illness in humans and animals. It can survive in harsh conditions for decades. Humans can be exposed through skin contact, inhalation of spores or eating contaminated meat.
