As aquaculture increases productivity to meet worldwide demand, IT faces an increasing threat from thespread of diseases and pathogens

The Nucleic Sensing Systems LLC was awarded a $175,000 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program / Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program (CFDA 10.212).

Through this funding, Nucleic Sensing Systems will develop autonomous biosensing technologies to monitor threats from the spread of diseases and pathogens in aquaculture. Specifically, the company will complete assembly of a benchtop submodule to validate its efficacy in detecting three target viral pathogens. In parallel, engineering and application data from the submodule will inform the professional design of an alpha product unit suitable for production and commercial sales. The goal is to create robust, in-field monitoring technologies that can disseminate data in real-time to aquaculture decision-makers, addressing a need for continuous monitoring without human presence. Work is expected to be completed by February 2023.

However, biosensor technologies have not kept pace with the need to monitor these ever-increasing threats. In particular, biomonitoring has been limited by the need for continuous human presence, whether at the point of collection or in the laboratory. What is needed are biosensors that function as robustly and easily as a smoke-alarm, i.e., autonomous, reliable, in-field monitoring technologies capable of disseminating data straightforwardly and in real-time to a broad range of personnel and decision-makers.NS2 will seek to overcome these barriers. By completing the assembly of a benchtop submodule and verifying its efficacy to detect target viral pathogens (infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus, viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus, infectious pancreatic necrosis virus), we will validate and develop the technology. Simultaneously, we will be using the engineering and application data gathered from the submodule to inform an alpha product unit's professional industrial engineering design suitable for production and sales.