March 10, 2005

Purdue faculty working to protect the homeland

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University has dozens of researchers working in areas related to homeland security and several centers dedicated to these areas of research. The following is a list of some of these experts and their research.

• Graham Cooks, Purdue's Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, is leading a continuing project to create portable, lightweight sensors that use mass spectrometry, a technique for identifying chemical and biological agents in the air. The aim is to develop extremely sensitive instruments capable of quickly detecting – without false alarms – only a few parts of a hazardous substance per billion parts of air. New sensors based on this technology might be ideal for use at airports and public buildings, providing advance warning of an attack by sensing tiny quantities of toxins before they are actually unleashed. The instrument, a miniature ion-trap mass spectrometer, has been studied and improved in the Purdue lab for more than 15 years. Cook's work has led to the creation of Griffin Analytical Technologies in 2001 to manufacture miniaturized versions of mass spectrometers. Griffin now employs 18 people at the Purdue Research Park and sells the devices for approximately $100,000 apiece.

• Chemistry Professor Fred Regnier is leading a research team that is focusing on using "smart bioadhesives" to selectively trap targeted biological threats, which are subsequently identified using special pattern-recognition software. The experimental sensor technology uses chips covered with numerous microscopic squares. Some of the squares, which are so small that 10 of them could fit across the width of a human hair, can be coated with antibodies that attract a specific biological agent, such as anthrax. Pattern-recognition software could be used to recognize if spots were beginning to form on the squares containing the antibodies, setting off an alarm. The chips in the sensors could then be removed and taken to a lab to be analyzed. The researchers have developed a process in which rubberlike "stamps" are used to manufacture chips, perhaps leading to a method for producing inexpensive sensors. These stamps are coated with a solution of antibodies, just as a printing stamp is coated with ink and then used to produce numerous chips. The goal is to devise a method to manufacture sensors affordable enough to be placed by the thousands in public places, much like the ubiquitous smoke detector. Sensors based on the same technology might have several important public-health applications, as well.

• Scott A. McLuckey, a chemistry professor, is conducting research on the use of proteins as "biomarkers" for identification of toxins, viruses and bacteria. Working with an ion-trap mass spectrometer, scientists can locate the "fingerprints" of proteins. This fingerprint – and the organism from which it was derived – can then be identified through a protein database.

For the complete story, see http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/html3month/2005/050310.Governor.terror.html