Topics

The goal of Technical Topic Area 1 is to develop new products for DHS to identify Ricin (RCA60, RCA120), Abrin, and C. botulinum toxins with high confidence. The heterogeneous nature of polyclonal sera can be problematic for the identification of specific biological toxins. New monoclonal antibodies, peptides, or small molecules are needed that act against defined toxins, resulting in increased specificity for toxin identification.

The goal of Technical Topic Area 2 is to develop new products for DHS to identify individual domains of Ricin (RCA60, RCA120), Abrin, and C. botulinum (BoNT) toxins with high confidence and in a selective manner. Ricin, Abrin, and BoNT are highly distinct, with unique functional targets, mechanisms, cell types, and receptors. These toxins, including BoNT serotypes, have unique catalytic active sites, as well as distinct targeting and receptor-binding domains. Developing reagents against individual domains will allow the positive identification of specific toxins and serotypes with high specificity and selectivity.

The goal of Technical Topic Area 3 is to develop sequence subtraction databases that will support the Department of Homeland Security capability to identify novel viruses that impact humans and agriculture. The databases will be used to remove host cell nucleic sequences from bioinformatic analyses to support viral discovery and in-depth characterization of viruses. The eukaryotic genome sequences of biological agent hosts, vectors, and reservoirs, as well as cell lines used for tissue culture will need to be generated in order to populate the databases. A large sequencing center will have the capacity to support high throughput sequencing in collaboration with the government to support closing this important gap. At a minimum, the resulting sequences should be high quality draft. All organisms and cell lines will be provided by the government for this effort, and the sequence data will be submitted to NCBI.

The goal of Technical Topic Area 4 is to perform in-depth research on the bacterial populations of select agents where there are critical knowledge gaps. Successful prosecution of biocrimes is contingent upon a thorough understanding of the biology and structure of the bacterial population/species in question, as sample attribution is directly linked to the diversity of that population/species. Microbial forensic analyses need to be founded on an accurate understanding of existing levels of diversity, as well as the various mechanisms and patterns that drive genetic diversity accumulation. The Department of Homeland Security has a significant interest in understanding the population characteristics of C. botulinum and B. anthracis (the latter from North African and Middle Eastern regions only). All isolates and matrices (e.g. soils, source samples) positive for these bacterial agents and acquired for this BAA will be sent to the government as reference samples for addition to their repository collection.