• Biomarker Discovery and Toxicogenomics
• Environmental Sentinel Biomonitor (ESB) Systems
• Reproductive Health and Toxicology

Environmental Sentinel Biomonitor (ESB) System for Drinking Water Protection

More Soldiers become ill or injured from disease and non-battle injuries than from combat, and providing good quality water supplies to the Warfighter is a key element in preventing such injuries. Basic field water tests can detect only a few high priority threat chemicals, and comprehensive testing for additional chemicals can take days or weeks. The Environmental Sentinel Biomonitor (ESB) system will provide rapid toxicity identification for many industrial and agricultural chemicals in water. Rather than evaluating individual chemical constituents in water, the ESB system uses biologically-based sensors to identify toxic responses associated with the presence of chemicals in the water. In this way, toxicity associated with a wide range of chemicals can be identified, including unsuspected or unknown materials and chemical mixtures.

The first increment of the ESB system was designed for use in rear areas in deployed situations or at permanent bases elsewhere. The system uses a combination of enzyme- and cell-based toxicity sensors. The cell-based sensor responds to a wide range of industrial chemicals using electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS) technology and is complemented by a commercially-available kit that detects organophosphorus and carbamate pesticides which inhibit activity of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase. The increment 1 ESB system is available through Agave Biosystems, Inc. (www.agavebio.com).

Development of a second increment of the ESB system was approved in March 2009. The increment 2 ESB system is intended for use at Army field water production sites in conjunction with the currently-available basic water quality test kit. Planned improvements over the first increment ESB system include better toxicant sensitivity, smaller size and lower power consumption, increased ease of use, and extended shelf life of system components. The technology downselection process has just been initiated for increment 2, and a prototype is planned for completion in 2012.