Ewu Researcher Gets Grant To Study Pathogen Detectors

An Eastern Washington University professor and two area companies have received a $1.2 million grant for developing a new, sensitive device that can detect microbes used in biological warfare.

EWU will receive the grant from the Office of Naval Research and will pay Quantum Northwest of Spokane $150,000 and InnovaTek of Richland $275,000 to provide equipment and testing for the project. The remainder of the grant funding will go to the research lab.

Jeanne Small, a professor of biochemistry at EWU and the project’s lead investigator, said the grant will fund work for two years and seven months.

Small, who has a doctorate from Harvard University, said the pathogen detectors being developed are in a niche field of study known as “photoacoustics.”

For her project, lasers will strike microbes, such as anthrax, producing sound “signatures” of the pathogens. The sounds are recorded by an ultrasound microphone. The process will enable researchers to develop an “acoustic fingerprint” catalog of pathogens.

The project is expected to move ahead in three phases.

The first year, a large prototype-testing device will be built. Then a smaller, portable version will be produced. In the final phase, the device will be redesigned and then tested at a military facility.

Small said the final device will include small lasers, ultrasound microphones and a microprocessor to keep track of the cataloged sounds emitted by various microbes.

Along with military field use, Small said the product could be used like a smoke alarm near buildings that are at risk of bioterrorism. She cited the anthrax scare earlier this year at Planned Parenthood in Spokane as an example.

The Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute (SIRTI), which did not receive any of the grant money, will commercialize any new applications.