SPADA Working Groups ~ April Meeting Book

“Detection of sub-nanogram levels of SEA-SEC in liquid samples, preferable using field deployable assay in less than four hours.”

IX. SPADA Executive Advisory Panel Discussion

Davenport took the floor and explained that the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has provided infrastructure funding to SPADA to encourage discussions on future priorities, especially the needs of first responders for standards and rapid assays that have been tested to those standards. The discussion that ensued was part of DHS infrastructure support. Davenport said that he has spoken to David Ladd (IAB / Massachusetts Department of Fire Services) who is working on a position paper for DHS to move further and faster in the development of handheld technologies for first responders that have been tested and proven to perform to a known level of standard. Often first responders must make important decisions (closing down a facility, for example) based on the hand-held assay results, but do not know how well those assays perform. Lin advised that there are multiple layers that need to be developed to meet first responder needs. Reference materials need to be updated and developed to meet today's standards and be readily available for assay manufacturers. The assays themselves need to be developed and tested to established performance standards. And training for the first responder in the use of those assays in the field is critical. Johns suggested the development of tactical standards for threats that are currently unknown, and asked if a system could be developed to rapidly develop standards for these unknowns. Another SPADA member suggested revisiting the older SPADA standards. There is a tremendous amount of genotypic availability around the world and it could be worthwhile to revisit some of the older strain panels to ensure they are diverse enough. A DoD representative volunteered to bring this concept to the attention of the DTRA Program Manager.

X. Adjourn

The SPADA Meeting adjourned at approximately 4:00 p.m. EDT. McIver announced that the working groups would be held consecutively on the following day beginning at 9:00 a.m. EDT.