Elizabeth Leigh
Biological detection technology maker PositiveID will offer a handheld diagnostics system and airborne threat detector to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency as a partner with Leidos under a potential 10-year, $4 billion research-and-development contract.
The companies signed a teaming agreement in 2012 to work together on projects involving systems engineering and integration, and biological detection and diagnostics, PositiveID said Wednesday.
Leidos is one of seven prime contractors for the Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction Research and Technology Development program, where awardees will compete to perform research and development work on biothreat detection technologies
“We look forward to demonstrating the ability of our Firefly and M-BAND technologies to combat weapons of mass destruction,” said William Caragol, chairman and CEO of PositiveID.
PositiveID’s Firefly DX molecular diagnostic system works to derive results from a sample within 20 minutes by using TaqMan polymarase chain reaction chemistry.
The company built the M-BAND airborne biothreat detector for the Department of Homeland Security to continuously monitor air pathogens and analyze air samples of bacteria, viruses and toxins.
