Wednesday, August 18

7:00 Registration, Poster and Exhibit Set-up, and Coffee

Strategic Overview of Biodefense and Opportunities for Technology Development

8:30 Chairperson’s Opening Remarks
Dr. Lloyd J. Whitman, Head, Surface Nanoscience, and Sensor Technology Section, Naval Research Laboratory

8:40 Biological Countermeasures S & T Programs within the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA)
Dr. Keith Ward, Program Officer, Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA)
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS-S&T) develops requirements, provides fiscal resources, and develops and funds Science and Technology programs aimed at providing technically sound and cost-effective systems to counter Biological Threats within our borders. HSARPA is the Agency within DHS-S&T that supports efforts in the academic, private, and government laboratory sectors by means of competitive proposals for technology development. This presentation will provide an overview of the DHS-S&T organization and the important roles played by each component. A summary of recent and planned solicitations in this area will be described and placed in context with related efforts being conducted in other Departments of the Federal Government.

9:10 Design Approaches to a Portable Diagnostic System
Dr. Mark Derzon, Principal Investigator, National Security and Sensors Department, Sandia National Laboratory 
Design approaches to a portable diagnostic system containing orthogonal immuno- and nucleic acid multiplexing assays along with integrated sample preparation. In 2002, USAMRIID requested an independent assessment of the potential for existing research to meet the Block III requirements. As part of this work we conceptualized a solution. We will describe the process and the envisioned solution

9:40 Developing and Implementing New Technology Systems in Biodefense
Dr. John C. Schmidt, Director Chem Bio Defense Technology Center, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems
Northrop Grumman is currently developing and deploying biodetection systems for defense, homeland security, and postal applications. The status of three new systems will be described. The sensitivity, selectivity, and life cycle cost requirements for each system will be summarized. Finally, several opportunities for incorporating new technologies for next-generation versions of these systems will be described.

10:10 Coffee Break, Poster & Exhibit Viewing

10:45 Technology Triage: System Design for Global Virus Screening
Dr. Norman G. Anderson, President, Viral Defense Foundation 
The product of the number of credible biological threats times the number of proposed responses is a very large number indeed. Any integrated system for biodefense will therefore be based on a series of choices between a variety of threats and technologies. We attempt to triage our way through a decision tree including the major variables to demonstrate how the (or a) central problem may be defined, how the optimal set of response technologies can be identified, and how the public knows how a proposed system actually works. Briefly, based on systematic triage we propose that : (1) new viral pathogens pose the greatest threat to the largest number of people, (2) rapid identification of the index or early follow-cases is the most important first step, (3) physical isolation of a new infectious agent is essential to rapid identification, (4) diagnostic blood samples already in commercial diagnostic pipelines provide the best source of the required samples, (5) in excess of 500 liters per week of excess diagnostic serum collected from large populations is currently discarded and is available for analysis, (6) continuous-flow-with banding ultracentrifuges can concentrate viruses from such volumes, (7) microbanding systems have been developed to further concentrate and purify recovered viral mixtures, and (8) nucleic acids from complex viral mixtures have been shotgun sequenced to identify large numbers of different viruses in parallel. The additional technical requirements for building an integrated continuously-operational global screening system are described. The target turnaround time is two weeks. Routine publication of lists of viruses in current circulation will assure the public that the system is working.

11:15 Detection Instruments for Astrobiology
Dr. Gregory Bearman, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Solar system exploration will increasingly involve an ability to search for signatures of extraterrestrial life. Accomplishment of this goal requires advances in in situ science capabilities to acquire and analyze samples. Many possible biosignatures for extraterrestrial life have been proposed. The list includes chirality, elemental, chemical and isotopic differential; non-equilibrium redox products and ion concentrations, microscopic structures and the presence of prebiotic and biotic molecules such as amino acids, long-chain hydrocarbons and other complex biomolecules. Instrumentation to detect these biosignatures can come from a wide range of technologies such as ultra-sensitive clinical instrumentation, biosensors, microarrays, microfluidic devices, MEMS and biologically inspired devices such as ion channel detectors. An overview will be presented of the science drivers for biosignatures and upcoming NASA sponsored instrument development needs. Many of the detection technologies discussed at this conference may be applicable to this problem.

11:45 Panel Discussion with the Speakers

12:15 Lunch (on your own)

NANO BIODEFENSE - HAND HELD BIOSENSORS AND
REAL TIME MONITORING

2:00 Chairperson’s Remarks
Dr. Carol A. Dahl, Director for Global Health Technologies, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

2:05 Application of High-sensitivity Detection Systems to Biodefense
Dr. Uwe R. Müller, Vice President, Applied Science, Nanosphere, Inc. 
Nanosphere has developed a robust, low-cost and sensitive detection platform based on nanoparticle technology for diagnostic applications in genetics, cancer, and infectious disease. At the core are gold nanoparticle probes that are functionalized with oligonucleotides and thereby confer higher sensitivity and specificity upon hybridization-based assays. From a multiplicity of available detection modes we have focused on evanescence induced scatter for detection of silver amplified gold nanoparticles, or measurement of color changes induced in larger particles in the presence of target. These highly sensitive systems are compatible with array-based as well as homogeneous assay formats. Most notably, this platform allows detection of specific nucleic acid sequences with single base-pair discrimination in the presence of total genomic DNA without any kind of target amplification or enzymatic modification. Applications toward the detection of protein targets are underway. The relevance of this technology to biodefense will be discussed.
2:35 Biological Applications of Multifunctional Magnetic Nanowires
Dr. Daniel H. Reich, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University 
Biosensing based on magnetic tagging of pathogens has the potential to provide an important new avenue for the detection of biological threats. We are developing a new class of biocompatible magnetic nanoparticles, multifunctional magnetic nanowires, that provide greatly expanded capabilities over the spherical magnetic nanoparticles currently in use. The nanowires’ multilayer architecture enables a wide range of functionalities to be encoded through control of the physical properties of the layers and through spatially resolved surface chemistry. Potential applications of these novel nanoparticles in the area of biodefense will be discussed.

3:05 Refreshment Break, Poster & Exhibit Viewing

3:30 Designer Nanoparticles for Multiplexed Bioassays
Mr. Michael Natan, CEO, Nanoplex Technologies 
We have developed two nanotechnologies that we are applying to enable highly multiplexed bioassays. Nanobarcodes® Particles are encoded sub-micron metallic rods, that are intrinsically encoded by virtue of the difference in reflectivity of adjacent metal stripes. SENSER™ tags are a quantitative tagging technology, based on surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of glass-coated metal nanoparticles. We will present data on the development of genomic and proteomic assays using both technologies.

4:00 Semiconductor-based Microarrays for Systems Biology
Dr. Andy McShea, Director, Applied Science, Combimatrix Corporation
Using a combination of semiconductor microelectronics and electrochemical control of nanoscale molecular assembly. Combimatrix corporation has developed a system for synthesizing large libraries of organic compounds and polymers. Applying DNA phosphoramidite chemistries to specially fabricated CMOS devices allows the synthesis of large numbers of oligonucleotides for hybridization analysis and the production of ‘raw material’ (nucleic acids libraries) for genetic screens. We describe how we have optimized this technology to maximize sensitivity and present examples of the utility of this convergent technology for systems biology approaches in infectious diseases.

4:30 Practical Approaches to Nanoscale Biodiagnostics and Biodefense
Dr. Michael Lynch, Research Scientist, BioForce Nanosciences, Inc.
We will report on the use of tools and concepts of nanotechnology to create some of the first examples of practical bioanalytical nanosystems. We have developed a dedicated instrument, the NanoArrayer, for the construction of ultraminiaturized arrays of biomolecules on the sub-micron and micron scale. These nanoarrays occupy a surface area thousands of times smaller than a standard microarray and therefore present many novel applications. Three of the applications we will demonstrate are cytokine expression profiling nanoarrays for small animal model systems, reverse-phase nanoarrays for profiling malignant progression from laser capture microdissected tissue samples, and a nanoarray-based pathogen detection platform with biodefense applications called the ViriChip.

5:00 Networking Reception with Poster and Exhibit Viewing

6:15 Close of Day One