Schott North America

Schott North America of Duryea, Pa., has secured $1 million in a defense appropriations bill for research and development of a fully automated system for detecting the presence of biological agents. The proposed system would improve the US Department of Defense’s ability to determine the nature and severity of a biological attack. The system involves a glass microarray platform into which a DNA sample from biological agents, such as bacteria or spores, would be placed, enabling 96 simultaneous tests to determine which pathogens were present. The multiplexed technology allows each of the tests to potentially diagnose up to 2000 pathogens, reducing the identification and response time.