AUSTIN, Texas, 4 Aug. 2012. As part of the U.S. military's steps toward the detection and defeat of chemical and biological weapons, the DOD has awarded a $11.6 million contract to Luminex Corp., a developer of biological test technology, for the development of a flexible and highly portable diagnostic instrument that will be capable of rapid detection of biothreat agents and host response biomarkers that are indicative of systemic disease.

This contract comes after the revision of an announcement from the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC). In the announcement by the ECBC, funding was also called for several other related projects. These projects include creating enzymatic systems for the degradation of dangerous chemicals, an investigation of self-decontaminating coatings that have enzymatic or biochemical compounds, and an investigation of microbial systems and other natural products for the bioremediation of hazardous wastes such as chemical agents and other chemical warfare related materials. Each of these programs are ranked as category A, or ECBC high program priority and high probability of funding.

Work for this contract will be completed at Luminex Corp.'s headquarters in Austin, Texas. The development of the new technology is expected to be completed in January of 2016.