The project addresses the need for diagnosing military and civilian personnel infected with security sensitive biological agents (SSBA). There is a wide range of infectious disease threats within SSBA, and many have common symptoms, making identification and treatment difficult. Furthermore, testing often requires specimens to be transported to centralised laboratories, which can delay diagnosis and treatment and make it difficult to prevent the containment of outbreaks.
Planet Innovation is developing POC technologies that address needs in the civilian market and are directly transferrable to MCMs for military and national security. For this project, Planet Innovation will collaborate with Deakin University to adapt its existing high-performance test cartridge to allow testing for a panel of infectious disease agents. Additional activities with Anteo Technologies will focus on improving test sensitivity through novel chemistry modifications, which is important for detection of low levels of infection. These improvements will be integrated to generate functional prototype test cartridges that will be evaluated against existing laboratory test methods.
The device will be a field-deployable, POC diagnostic testing system that will rapidly detect and differentiate multiple infectious disease agents within a single test cartridge. Wireless connection of the device to cloud-based platforms via Smartphone will provide the ability to track outbreaks as they happen in real time, minimising the spread of disease.