Isis Pharmaceuticals’ Ibis division has shipped its first TIGER biosensor system to the United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Disease (USAMRIID), which will use the system to identify infectious agents for biowarfare defence.

Ibis is deploying the TIGER biosensor system with support from the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under a subcontract from San Diego-based Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The TIGER (Triangulation Identification for Genetic Evaluation of Risks) biosensor system is a revolutionary system that can simultaneously identify thousands of infectious organisms without needing to know what might be present in a sample.

Michael Treble, President of Ibis and Vice President of Isis said, "Having met the rigorous standards of the Department of Defence, the TIGER biosensor system's specificity and sensitivity will allow USAMRIID to rapidly identify unexpected infectious organisms that have been difficult to identify using previously available methods. The TIGER biosensor system will also allow USAMRIID to efficiently analyze large numbers of environmental or human samples without the need to culture or sequence, providing the institute with the utility necessary for biowarfare defense."

Ibis also plans to deliver a TIGER biosensor system this year to the Naval Health Research Centre and to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), each for use in epidemiological surveillance, and to the Department of Homeland Security, for use in microbial forensics.

"In addition to delivering TIGER biosensor systems to our government customers, we plan to sell TIGER systems to pharmaceutical and healthcare customers for pharmaceutical process control, healthcare-associated infections and eventually, infectious disease diagnostics," Treble added.