"Smoke" detector promises safety

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), June, 2005

High-traffic facilities like airports, office buildings, rail stations, and sporting arenas serve hundreds of thousands of people each day, making them particularly susceptible to silent and invisible biological attacks. However, a "biological smoke detector" has been developed by scientists at California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The stand-alone device can provide early warning to help authorities limit exposure and start treating victims before they show symptoms of full-blown infection.

The Autonomous Pathogen Detection System continuously monitors the air, promises John Dzenitis, a chemical engineer at LLNL. It is capable of detecting and identifying three types of biological agents: bacteria, viruses, and toxins, including such familiar threats as anthrax, plague, and botulinum. The machine runs the same tests that molecular biologists would carry out in a laboratory to pinpoint biological agents, providing information that is required before definitive public-health action can be taken.

LLNL has been working on the instrument since 1995, but this new version, in addition to testing simultaneously for multiple agents with protein antibodies, confirms positive results with a DNA test specific for the agent. No other field system has two independent molecular biology tests; this further reduces the probability of a false alarm and gives confidence for effective response.