TacBio Aerosol Detector | Research International, Inc.

General Description
TacBio was developed by the U.S. government for military, homeland security, and public health applications. It is a compact and rugged portable biological particle detector that uses both diffractive scattering and natural biological fluorescence to monitor aerosol particulates and classify them as being of either biological or non-biological origin. Research International, Inc. is an official licensee of the U.S. government for the TacBio, and has the right to manufacture and sell the instrument worldwide.The TacBio is extremely useful for tracking background levels of airborne non-biological and biological materials and providing an alarm and/or digital activation command to other equipment if there is a rapid increase in the aerosol background. It cannot identify the type of biological material detected, and for that reason it is correctly characterized as an aerosol ‘trigger.’ The TacBio requires little maintenance and no consumables, and is an ideal first line of defense for monitoring areas that cannot be accessed regularly or must be monitored discretely. Since no consumables are used, operating time in the field is limited only by the availability of electric power. The device accepts a range of primary and rechargeable long-lived batteries that provide in excess of 24 hours continuous operation. Additionally, there is no difficulty operating at sub-zero temperatures since no liquid-based media are required. Operation may be monitored remotely using Windows-based software provided with the unit, and changes made to its operating characteristics as needed or desired.

Technical Description
TacBio operation is based on the fact that aerosolized biological materials fluoresce, in addition to scattering light when irradiated by UV light, in this case from a long-lived LED. Fluorescence emission and photon scattering events are measured with a unique “Geiger counter” high-speed photon counting method and analyzed by software to create a snapshot every 60 seconds of biological and non-biological particulates present in sampled air. These aerosol statistics are stored in a 30 minute-long ‘History’ file. Every 60 seconds current particle statistics are compared with this moving baseline to determine if an unusual increase in particle concentration has occurred.

Evaluation Criteria

THROUGHPUT:

2 minutes or less for detection
Continuous operation with no defined runs
349-96 samples every 2 hours
The system or device is currently fully automated
Device or system is intended for multiple detection assays
0-1 solutions, buffer, eluents, and/or reagents
0 components
Less than 5 minutes is required for set-up
Automatic detection

LOGISTICS:

Very brief (minutes-hours) training and minimal technical skills
Approximately the size of a toaster
Between 1 and 5 kg
Wireless and wired connections are available
System or device uses batteries
4-8 hours battery life

OPERATIONS:

Can be used from -21°C to 41°C
Performance is not influenced by relative humidity
5-10 years expected life
Results can be viewed in real-time
The system or device is currently fully autonomous
The system software is closed and not available for modification
The system hardware is closed and not available for modification

DETECTION:

Possible the system could receive 510K clearance, no current efforts at this time
Possible the system could receive FDA approval, no current efforts at this time
This system does not test liquids
Superior specificity. System has a false alarm rate approaching zero (~0%)
Spore lysis not necessary for detection by system

Tier Selection