NIH funds Ribomed development of smallpox detector
Summary:
NIH awards $502,000 to Ribomed to develop a rapid-detection device for smallpox.
Full Story:
The National Institutes of Health awarded a $502,000 Small Business Innovative Research grant to Ribomed, a Phoenix company specializing in genetics-based pathogen and disease detection. The grant, five times larger than typical for Phase One SBIR grants, will fund the development of a device for rapidly detecting viruses and bacteria from blood and tissue samples.
Though initial work will focus on smallpox detection, such technology could have broader applications, according to Ribomed founder Michelle Hanna. "The exact same method can be applied to detecting anthrax, which is DNA and a bacterium," she told the Business Journal. "They're both pathogens. Smallpox is an RNA virus and anthrax is a DNA bacterium."
Ribomed is also currently working on an early cancer detection process for the National Cancer Institute and a portable anthrax detection device for the U.S. Department of Defense.
More information:
"Ribomed receives funding for research on smallpox," Business Journal, 05/09/2003