Materials

Solution: To Support Homeland Security

Materials research is becoming increasingly important in developing technologies to detect nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Smart sensor systems rely on materials to process the signals from biomarkers, chemicals, and radio-nuclides.

Expertise in glass science in areas such as radiation damage effects and scintillators, as well as optical and photonic materials, such as non-linear optical properties, can help meet today’s security needs, including detecting, identifying, and analyzing nuclear materials and nuclear devices.

Biomaterials expertise has yielded a technology that automatically concentrates large volumes of soil, air, or water samples into small, clean samples to quickly identify pathogens. The Biodetection Enabling Analyte Delivery System (BEADS) creates clean samples so that micro-organisms can be identified in places like food processing lines and water treatment plants. The system’s sample preparation process can be used with existing detectors, but takes the person out of the process by using proprietary microfluidic systems and automated sample cleanup methods. It can be used in chemical, protein, nucleic acid or whole-cell detectors.