Ibis Ships First TIGER Biosensor System to the US Government

In a move that marks a major milestone in its commericialization plan, Ibis Technologies have shipped their 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 defense.

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

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.

The TIGER process involves extracting DNA from clinical or environmental samples, the sample is then divided into wells of a microtitre plate that each contains a pair of broad range primers for PCR. The result of the broad range PCR reactions is typically a mixture of amplicons of about 100 base pairs that reflect the complexity of the original mixture of bacteria or virus present in the sample.

The PCR products are then analysed by mass spectrometry. The spectral signals are processed to determine the masses of each of the PCR products present with sufficient accuracy that the base composition of adenosines, guanosines, cytidines and thymidines can be determined. Using combined base compositions from multiple PCR reactions the organisms present in the original sample can be found.

Mass spectrometry is the key differentiator of this system compared others. It is the basic component of the TIGER process that allows the biosensor system to identify known and unknown pathogens through the identification of unique fingerprints for each organism in a sample.

Interpretation of the TIGER system’s mass spectrometry signals are accomplished with proprietary signal processing software. The mass spectrometer measures the precise weight of each nucleic acids present. These mass signals appear as peaks that the TIGER system processor uses to identify which organisms’ DNA may be present in the sample. The systems analytical software produces the results in a "user friendly" format.