Biowarfare

The purpose of Biowarfare agents is to sicken, maim or kill the enemy under war conditions. While there are international laws in place regarding their use, there is great concern about clandestine level attacks on an individual or population. Biowarfare agents are microorganisms such as viruses including Ebola, Marburg and small pox, and bacteria such as Anthrax, Plague and Glanders, as well as toxins produced by bacteria, fungi, algae, plants, fishes, crustaceans and mollusks. Because of the catastrophic impact of exposure to these agents, many systems have been developed for detecting them. The predominant ones are based on the ELISA sandwich assays format in its many configurations. These systems are used for detection and for monitoring response to treatment. However, biowarfare microbes have been known to mutate, which requires development of new reagents that detect the mutated forms. The AcPET system is uniquely able to rapidly develop recombinant proteins as well as antibodies that can be used in new and existing detection and monitoring systems, or as replacements for existing reagents. Of equal or greater importance is that the AcPET system can also develop antibiotic recombinant proteins for treating biowarfare agent infections or for inactivating biowarfare toxins. Further, the speed with which the AcPET system can select proteins for specific pruposes make it ideally suited for selecting proteins used to detect, treat, or monitor any new biowarfare agent threats.