NASA SBIR 2005 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
INNOSENSE LLC
2531 West 237th Street, Suite 127
Torrance ,CA 90505 - 5245
(310) 530 - 2011

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Kisholoy   Goswami
kisholoy.goswami@innosense.us
2531 West 237th Street, Suite 127
Torrance, CA  90505 -5245
(310) 530 - 2011

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
This project will develop a sensitive and specific biosensor worthy of field deployment for autonomous operations. The underlying technology will enable in situ detection of terror agents in the cargo space of an aircraft or in airports and thereby reduce vulnerability of the Air Transportation system. There is a critical need for sensitive, rugged biosensors capable of performing assays under harsh conditions with minimal crew attention for decreasing the time and cost of analyses. Toward that goal, tasks have been designed in this Phase I proposal to develop a biosensor using molecularly imprinted polymers - a class of synthetic receptors that can be tailored to selectively interact with analytes for which recognition molecules of biological origin may not be available. The feasibility of a sensor array will be demonstrated by using nerve agent simulants. A prototype sensor array device, and smart signal processing algorithm will be developed in Phase II. For Phase III manufacturing engineering and Phase III follow-on funding, discussions have been held with two potential partners. A highly proficient engineering team, with a cumulative 70 person-years of experience in materials science and optical sensors, is in place to develop the biosensor.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Aside from use in the air transportation system, this project would offer robust biosensor for monitoring air quality and water quality during human exploration of space. The resulting device will minimize frequent calibration needs and make the system autonomous freeing the crew to tend to priority assignments. Imprinted polymers can be tailor-designed to detect analytes for which no naturally occurring receptors are available. The ability of imprinted polymers to withstand harsh conditions is ideally suited for NASA missions in orbiting platforms, vehicles in transit, and on the surface of a celestial body.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
This project will also allow NASA to leverage its resources in support of National Security, allowing monitoring of other ground facilities that are vulnerable to terrorist attack in which chemical and biochemical warfare agents as well as explosives may be used. The cost, shelf life, and storage conditions of receptor molecules are important considerations in constructing a commercially viable biosensor. Current leading biological detection technologies use naturally occurring receptors such as antibodies and DNA strands. However, these materials, especially proteins, must be preserved at low temperatures. The proposed work will demonstrate innovative antibody mimics that can be synthesized instead of growing biologically. Besides NASA, more than 17,000 potential biosensor market customers could become users of the proposed technology. These include the Homeland Security Department, environmental monitoring companies, military bases and mobile units, biotechnology companies, medical research institutions, and clinical laboratories.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Air Revitalization and Conditioning Airport Infrastructure and Safety Autonomous Control and Monitoring Biochemical Biomedical and Life Support Biomolecular Sensors Earth-Supplied Resource Utilization In-situ Resource Utilization Microgravity Multifunctional/Smart Materials On-Board Computing and Data Management Optical Optical & Photonic Materials Organics/Bio-Materials Photonics Pilot Support Systems Portable Data Acquisition or Analysis Tools Testing Facilities Waste Processing and Reclamation