Lab-on-a-chip for terrorist weapons management

The growing concerns about terrorist activity have resulted in considerable interest in the development of devices that can be employed in the field for the detection of warfare agents and explosives. There is a need to develop systems that can provide on-site and real-time monitoring of terrorist weapons for the protection of both civilians and military personnel1,2. Many currently used warning systems are bulky and/ or slow. Field-deployable devices should have a small footprint and power requirements, be versatile, have high sensitivity and selectivity and be able to be employed in the field with minimal operator intervention.

Considerable effort is being made towards the rapid and sensitive detection of explosives for ‘counter-terrorism’ surveillance, e.g. for detection of hidden explosives and examination of bombing scenes3. In addition, there is also a need to detect chemical warfare agents (CWA) and their degradation products. There is alarm about the potential use of biological warfare agents (BWA) such as bacteria, viruses and toxins by terrorists. Fast and sensitive pathogen detection systems could provide an early warning of their release and minimise further spread and human casualties as well as protecting water resources and food supplies.