Military researchers eye project to develop protein sequencing sensors to detect biological warfare agents

Summary points:

• PROSE seeks the rapid identification of biothreats through advanced microsystems able to read long protein sequences with high throughput.
• Protein Sequencing (PROSE) program will develop high-accuracy molecular readers for detecting biological warfare threats.
• Industry briefings will be 30 June 2025 at DARPA headquarters in Arlington, Va., with remote attendance available.

ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. military researchers will brief industry later this month on an upcoming project to demonstrate molecular readers of amino acids to trace and identify biological warfare agents and identify perpetrators of biological attacks.

Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., will conduct unclassified industry briefings from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday 30 June 2025 on the upcoming Protein Sequencing (PROSE) sensors program.

PROSE seeks to demonstrate hardware read element designs integrated with microsystem architectures to read long protein sequences with high accuracy and at high throughput. These molecular protein readers must be able to scale across a range of chemical complexities.

Biological warfare threats

Industry briefings will be at the DARPA Conference Center, 675 N. Randolph St., Suite 200, in Arlington, Va. Briefings also will be available to remote attendees via webcast.

Protein sequencing can help with rapid identification of emerging and engineered biological warfare threats by analyzing their protein content. They also can help characterize unknown or synthetic biological agents; enhance personnel health and performance monitoring; and characterize microbial samples for criminal investigations.

Briefings will introduce industry to the PROSE program; discuss approaches to intellectual property and data rights; outline routes to technology commercialization; provide questions and answers; and encourage industry teaming.

Microsystems designs

PROSE will be a 36-month program, with a 15-month first phase and a 21-month second phase. The first phase will develop microsystem designs, amino acid calling algorithms, and models to predict throughput and accuracy. The second phase will demonstrate improved read-element performance in characterizing complex chemical and biological agents.

Companies interested in attending the PROSE industry briefings, or viewing them online, should register online no later than 23 June 2025 online at https://web.cvent.com/event/640215f4-9239-4e5f-9653-ab6673071764/regProcessStep1:fb53ad2e-f471-4a9b-b5c3-a062614c0ce3.

Email questions or concerns to DARPA at [email protected]. More information is online at https://web.cvent.com/event/640215f4-9239-4e5f-9653-ab6673071764/summary and at https://sam.gov/opp/c59a9ba45a0f4761bb67175d8b4a7ba1/view.