US Army Awards ADA $70K to Develop 'Lab-on-a-Chip' Technology

ADA Technologies has announced it has received a $70,000 contract from the US Army to develop a "lab-on-a-chip" technology to identify biological hazards in complex matrices.

The contract is for Phase 1 research into the development of the sampling platform, which will be used to identify hazards such as toxins, viruses, vegetative bacteria, and spores in matrices including blood, soil, food, and water.

In a statement, ADA Chief Technology Officer Steven Arzberger said that currently, highly trained laboratory personnel need to perform multiple separate steps on large sample sizes to obtain enough material for biological hazard analysis and identification.

"ADA's lab-on-a-chip not only saves time, but improves efficiency because it can be carried out by virtually anyone, regardless of training level," he said.

ADA is a technology development and commercialization firm based in Littleton, Colo. It received a $1.15 million grant from the National Institutes of Health two years ago to develop an analytical tool for analyzing carbohydrate-protein interactions in drug discovery and diagnostics research.

In late 2008, the National Cancer Institute gave ADA a $149,121 grant to develop a nanotechnology-based imaging and sensing platform for discovering cancer biomarkers.