PositiveID Corporation announced last week that it is preparing additional M-BAND systems for field deployment and testing. Once deployed, the company will have a total of six M-BAND systems in the field and under evaluation, including the four units delivered to the U.S government during the second half of 2014.
M-BAND (Microfluidic Bio-agent Autonomous Networked Detector) is currently under evaluation with a large federal government contractor to support the U.S. Department of Defense JUPITR Program. As part of this program, M-BAND is being tested and evaluated to baseline performance, reliability, maintainability, ease of use, and cost of operation to provide the best and most affordable options for the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force.
M-BAND currently performs detection for six organisms and three toxins on the Centers for Disease Control’s category A and B select agents list.
M-BAND was developed under contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology directorate, and $30 million of contract funding. M-BAND continuously and autonomously analyzes air samples for the detection of biological airborne threats in the form of bacteria, viruses, and toxins, with results in as little as three hours. Faster time to detection allows the deployment of countermeasures and vaccines more quickly than existing systems, thereby reducing casualties.
“As we see increased interest from the federal government, specifically DoD and DHS, in biodetection technologies, we are preparing additional M-BAND systems for deployment to monitor air samples for potential biothreats,” said William J. Caragol, PositiveID’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We believe that procurements for these important technologies will ramp up in 2015, in order to protect our homeland security, both domestically and for our allies and troops abroad.”
Source: PositiveID press release, adapted.