University of California

Los Alamos National Security, LLC

Alonso Castro

Perry Clayton Gray

Kathryn Louise Creek

A method and apparatus for rapid and accurate detection and discrimination of biological, radiological, and chemical particles in air. A suspect aerosol of the target particulates is treated with a taggant aerosol of ultrafine particulates. Coagulation of the taggant and target particles causes a change in fluorescent properties of the cloud, providing an indication of the presence of the target.

Airborne particulate discriminator

A method for rapid and efficient detection of a target DNA or RNA sequence is provided. A primer having a 3&prime;-hydroxyl group at one end and having a sequence of nucleotides sufficiently homologous with an identifying sequence of nucleotides in the target DNA is selected. The primer is hybridized to the identifying sequence of nucleotides on the DNA or RNA sequence and a reporter molecule is synthesized on the target sequence by progressively binding complementary nucleotides to the primer, where the complementary nucleotides include nucleotides labeled with a fluorophore. Fluorescence emitted by fluorophores on single reporter molecules is detected to identify the target DNA or RNA sequence.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Fe, NM, United States of America

Alonso Castro