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Thứ Năm, 25 tháng 4, 2013

Sandia Labs SpinDX tech to warn of ricin attacks

Sandia system engineers have developed a portable bioterror detection device called SpinDx.Sandia National Labs
Greg Sommer studies a sample in the SpinDX system.Sandia National Labs

The ricin attack this week on President Obama and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., were thwarted by advances in detection technology -- but can similar tech protect ordinary folk from this sort of attack?

Sandia National Laboratories has been quietly working to extend detection tech to the everyday arena in our nation’s defense against bioterrorism.

"We're not just going to wait for the next anthrax letter incident to happen for our devices to be used and tested,” said Sandia's biological science and technology group senior manager Anup Singh.

His team developed a new tech called SpinDx to quickly identify dangerous bioweapons: a portable device that allows first responders, your local doctor’s office and hospitals to quickly run tests for them.

SpinDx is sort of like a lab in an inches-long, 2-pound plastic cube. Combatting both man-made attacks and threats that erupt from nature, it will be able to rapidly identify a range of biothreats including ricin, shiga, botulinum and SEB toxin from just a single drop of blood.

With a four year funding grant of $4 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (part of the National Institutes of Health), the team will advance this research and take it to the next level.

“We want [SpinDx] to be useful for other things as well, like infectious diseases," Anup said.

How does it work?

SpinDX works sort of like a CD player: It spins a disposable plastic disc containing the test reagents. The discs allow the first responder to test for a wide suite of threats in as little as 15 minutes. Ordinary testing for toxic substances can take days and dollars, and requires highly skilled personnel.

What if terrorists targeted water or food supplies? This very same tech can be used to quickly work out whether food or water has been contaminated with toxins, viruses or bacteria.

Once approved by the Food and Drug Administration and made available to the public, SpinDX could be a key tool in emergency rooms.

Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has traveled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie.

Allison Barrie

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Thứ Ba, 2 tháng 4, 2013

With threats of chemical war in Syria, a new antidote to poisonous cyanide attacks

Syrian rebels and government officials have accused each other of launching chemical attacks -- an escalation that, if confirmed, would mark the first known use of chemical weapons in the civil war.

U.S. officials downplayed the allegations and said they could find no evidence of such weapons.

Chemical weapons like anthrax, sarin, mustard and ricin often make headlines, but what about the threat of a terrorist attack unleashing cyanide? Some security experts believe the gas threat is real -- and this particular poison acts very fast, making it particularly challenging for first responders.

Fortunately, a new antidote holds promise.

The current treatment for cyanide must be administered by IV or intravenous infusion, a procedure that is time-intensive and requires highly trained paramedical personnel.

All this stacks up to an ugly fact: in a mass casualty situation, only a limited number of victims could be saved.

“There is no effective cyanide antidote that can be administered rapidly,” said Steve Patterson, co-inventor and associate director of the university’s Center for Drug Design, where Sulfanegen was invented. “In the case of a mass casualty situation, the emergency responders wouldn’t be able to treat most of the victims.”

The latest episode in the American Chemical Society’s Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcast series brings very good news for this threat: A new antidote that may help seal off this gap in national defense.

Research undertaken by Steven E. Patterson, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Drug Design and colleagues has discovered a promising new alternative antidote. And this antidote could be self-administered, sort of like the average allergy injection pens that many small children carry with them to school.

The new substance, called sulfanegen TEA, could be administered as intra-muscular injection.

Using a simpler procedure means a far larger number of cyanide victims in a mass casualty incident could be rapidly treated. Patterson’s report appears in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

The drug will be produced by a new startup called Vytacera, pending FDA approval.

“We intend to move forward as rapidly as financing and regulations permit,” added Jon S. Saxe, chair of Vytacera. “Our goal is to make this important advance available to those in need of it and to enable governments to be better prepared, which, ultimately, may help deter terrorism.”

Allison Barrie

View the original article here

Thứ Tư, 27 tháng 3, 2013

With threats of chemical war in Syria, a new antidote to poisonous cyanide attacks

Syrian rebels and government officials have accused each other of launching chemical attacks -- an escalation that, if confirmed, would mark the first known use of chemical weapons in the civil war.

U.S. officials downplayed the allegations and said they could find no evidence of such weapons.

Fortunately, a new antidote holds promise.

The current treatment for cyanide must be administered by IV or intravenous infusion, a procedure that is time-intensive and requires highly trained paramedical personnel.

All this stacks up to an ugly fact: in a mass casualty situation, only a limited number of victims could be saved.

The new substance, called sulfanegen TEA, could be administered as intra-muscular injection.

Using a simpler procedure means a far larger number of cyanide victims in a mass casualty incident could be rapidly treated. Patterson’s report appears in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

The drug will be produced by a new startup called Vytacera, pending FDA approval.

Allison Barrie

View the original article here

Thứ Tư, 20 tháng 3, 2013

With threats of chemical war in Syria, a new antidote to poisonous cyanide attacks

Syrian rebels and government officials have accused each other of launching chemical attacks -- an escalation that, if confirmed, would mark the first known use of chemical weapons in the civil war.

U.S. officials downplayed the allegations and said they could find no evidence of such weapons.

Fortunately, a new antidote holds promise.

The current treatment for cyanide must be administered by IV or intravenous infusion, a procedure that is time-intensive and requires highly trained paramedical personnel.

All this stacks up to an ugly fact: in a mass casualty situation, only a limited number of victims could be saved.

The new substance, called sulfanegen TEA, could be administered as intra-muscular injection.

Using a simpler procedure means a far larger number of cyanide victims in a mass casualty incident could be rapidly treated. Patterson’s report appears in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

The drug will be produced by a new startup called Vytacera, pending FDA approval.

Allison Barrie

View the original article here