Unlike other detection systems that are slow and can require as long as 24 hours before results are obtained, the BSM-2000 yields results in just 15 minutes and is far less costly to operate than PDR DNA detection systems, according to Amir Ettehadieh, director of research and development, at UDT.

"The BSM-2000 anthrax detection system came out of the Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena," said Ettehadieh. "Originally, the technology was part of JPL's planetary protection unit and they employed it to make sure spacecraft--in particular the Mars rovers--that were sent from the Earth to Mars would be sterile. JPL did not want to take any biological life from Earth to Mars, because the whole purpose was to look for life on Mars--and in the process of doing so, they wanted to make sure they would not contaminate it," he added. JPL reasoned that if the bacterial spore was the most resilient form of life, if they could show sterility from this spore, they could thereby confirm sterility with regard to all other microbes.

UDT licensed this technology from JPL. They integrated the detection technology for identifying a spore into an air sampler so that the BSM-2000 became a detection system that continuously samples the air, checking for the presence of spores. In essence, it looks for a signature, which is a rise in the level of spores above the threshold--and that is the usual indicator of an attack. Studies have shown that background levels of bacterial spores in office buildings, for instance, range between 0.05 and 0.15 per liter of air. If there is an anthrax attack, the level rises to millions of spores per liter of air. The BSM-2000 system is able to detect that rise in the level of spores in that environment.

The BSM-2000 anthrax detection system has already been sold to a large hotel in Southern California and a company that does baggage handling at Miami International Airport. Though there are competing air samplers employing PCR DNA technology running in some 32 major cities in the United States, their turn-around is 24 to 48 hours. Whereas the BSM-2000 device issues an alert in approximately 15 minutes. Recurring costs for this technology are approximately 100 times less than for PCR DNA technology.

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