The US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has developed new portable field devices that will allow soldiers to identify unknown biological threats, including bioengineered ones, based on RNA and DNA analysis, in under half an hour.
Biowarfare has been around since the Siege of Caffa in 1346, when the Mongols made themselves very unpopular by catapulting the corpses of plague victims over the city walls, and it has been just as terrifying ever since. In the centuries that followed, the list of weaponized terrors has lengthened to include chemical, nuclear, and radiological arms – but biological weapons still hold a place of particular dread.
Part of the reason is that bioweapons are often very difficult to detect and identify. If you can't notice when a nuclear weapon goes off, then you're obviously not paying attention. Radiological weapons can be detected by a Geiger counter, while chemical weapons can usually be identified by reagents, electronic sensors, and special detection sheets sensitive to things like nerve agents. However, bioweapons fall into a completely different category.
In the 1971 technothriller The Andromeda Strain, identifying an unknown microbe took a team of scientists and a secret state-of-the-art underground research facility. Aside from the science fiction trappings and an atomic self-destruct mechanism, that's pretty much how the military handled suspected biowarfare agents. Samples were sent to labs for analysis while everyone sat around chewing pencils and hoping things weren't about to go full Omega Man before the lab results came back.
Attempts were made to come up with mobile systems, but these were often large, vehicle-mounted shelters that needed lots of power and climate control for the reagents and other biochemical equipment. The process was also very complicated and required trained personnel who could handle aerosol physics, bioluminescence, and antibody assaying to carry it out. Worse, identification was restricted to a pre-programmed library of agents for only four to eight distinct pathogens.
In other words, if you faced something really novel, you'd better get ready to grab all the MREs, barricade in, and fight off the technophobic mutants.
The result of a decade of development, the Far-Forward Advanced Sequencing Technology (F-FAST) initiative takes a different approach, identifying pathogens by their DNA or RNA using miniaturized and ruggedized sequencing equipment that can be used in the field by relatively untrained soldiers.
Validated for work in a variety of environments, including deserts, the Arctic, and at sea, the new techniques provide field commanders with quick answers as to the genetic makeup of a suspected microbe, map whole microbial communities, and, most significantly, identify genes that have been artificially modified.
It's a fairly ambitious task. Most DNA analysis is based on looking for known DNA sequences of specific, pre-determined biological agents and pathogens. F-FAST does this as well, but goes beyond to do whole-genome analysis of the entire genetic code of unknown organisms from samples collected by air filters and other means. And it can return results in the field in less than 30 minutes, which saves on a lot of nail-biting.
"This sequencing technology provides a deeper level of information, beyond what existing rapid diagnostic tests currently provide for many missions," said NRL Associate Director of Research Dr. Peter Matic, SES. "By characterizing genetic material directly, Far-Forward Advanced Sequencing Technology, or F-FAST, and Far-Forward Biological Sequencing, or FFBS, can confirm results from targeted tests, detect previously unknown threats, and provide critical data for medical and operational decision-making at the point of need."
Source: NRL
