Technology Overview

As the threat of biological warfare grows, countermeasures are needed to defend against it. ANP has provided the U.S. military, first responders, and emergency health professionals the tools to effectively detect biothreats. We take pride in producing the world's best rapid assays and handheld assays for the detection of biological warfare agents in white powder.

Not only can our multiplexed assays detect up to 5 targets at a time in a single ticket, but they are also immune to the high-dose Hook effect, a highly dangerous false negative result in the presence of high concentration of biothreat agents.

NIDS® Nano Intelligent Detection System 

ANP produces the world’s best rapid assays or handheld assays (HHAs) for the detection of biological warfare agents in white powders. By using its proprietary nanomanipulation technology, ANP’s multiplexed assays can detect up to 5 targets at one time using one test ticket, with improved sensitivities over commercially available single-target HHAs.

The Hook Effect

The NIDS® rapid tests do not suffer from the high-dose hook effect

Effect on Handheld Assays

The high-dose hook effect causes a false negative result when large amounts of a threat agent present in a test sample oversaturate the test reagents, disabling their ability to generate a positive signal. Other rapid assays overcome this by running several dilutions of an unknown sample on multiple tests, which significantly increases cost and operational complexity. ANP’s tests avoid this wasteful practice entirely.

The Hook Effect in traditional lateral flow assays is a false negative result in the presence of high concentrations of biological agents.

How to Use NIDS Biothreat Detection System:

Biothreat Kit

A NIDS® Biothreat Detection System consists of a handheld stand alone reader, multiplexed hand held assays, multipurpose sampling kits, and PC software for data management.

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The NIDS® 5-plex assays for the detection of a total of ten biothreat agents have been widely used by the US Department of Defence, Department of Homeland Security, and civilian first responders.

In order to detect 10 biological warfare agents, up to 40 traditional hand held assays need to be used as compared to only two (2) for NIDS® multiplexed hand held assays.

The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of ANP’s rapid tests along with a handheld reader for biological warfare agents have been verified independently by third party laboratories. Our tests have proven robust in the presence of a large variety of interferences.

The handheld stand alone reader (SAR), capable of analyzing and storing over 5,000 test results, completely eliminates human to human reading variations of hand held assays, particular under low lighting conditions. Our multiplexes and reader are currently in use by various units of the US armed forces and by the Department of Homeland Security.

Single target assays and multiplexes in 2-plex, 5-plex, and 10-plex formats for the detection of:

• B. anthracis

• Vaccinia

• Brucella

• Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis

• Listeria

• SEB

• F. tularensis

• Botulinum Toxin A

• V. cholerae

• E. coli 0157

• Ricin

• Coxiella burnetii

• Y. pestis

• Salmonella