ARLINGTON, Va., April 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says it has contracted ICx Technologies for sensor technology development in support of the Detect to Protect project.
Under the phase II-b research and development deal worth $4.9 million, ICx Technologies will be expected to finish its prototype of a system expected to detect and identify in 15 minutes or less, a list of ten bio-terrorism threats. Officials say the DHS Detect to Protect project is an effort to develop sensor technologies that can rapidly detect biological agents to minimize exposure during an attack.
ICx Technologies system works through the extracting of DNA and RNA from an environmental sample to identify threat-specific DNA sequences. The current goal of identifying 10 specific threats is expected to be expanded to include up to 50 different threats.
The DHS award for ICx Technologies marks the company's third in conjunction with this program.
