LOS ANGELES, Dec. 11, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Universal Detection Technology (www.udetection.com) (OTCBB:UDTT) (Frankfurt:PO8), a developer of early-warning monitoring technologies to protect people from bioterrorism and other infectious health threats and provider of counter-terrorism consulting and training services, announced today that the Patent for Company's Anthrax Detection technology used in its BSM-2000 system was granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The Patent is for an invention titled "bacterial endospore quantification using lanthanide dipicolinate luminescence" and has been filed under USPTO Number 7,306,930. The inventor is Dr. Adrian Ponce, the Deputy Manager for the Planetary Science and Life Detection Section at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
This patent describes a method for detecting bacterial endospores in a medium, the method comprising the steps of:
a) Combining a lanthanide with a medium to be analyzed for bacterial
endospore content, the lanthanide reacting with the bacterial
endospores if present in the medium to form a lanthanide chelate;
b) Exciting any lanthanide chelate formed in said step (a) with an
excitation energy distinctive of the lanthanide chelate;
c) Sensing whether emission occurs at an emission wavelength
distinctive of the lanthanide chelate as a result of the
excitation in said step (b); and
d) Determining whether bacterial endospores are present in the
medium, based on said step (c).
UDTT licensed the patented technology from the California Institute of Technology and in 2004 commercialized the technology into the BSM-2000 autonomous detector for airborne anthrax spores. UDTT announced the sales of two units to the Government of the United Kingdom in 2006.
The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a study of the technology in 2003 and concluded that the technology would be a lot cheaper to operate to the current DNA analysis units at use at U.S. Postal facilities. The technology has also been evaluated in numerous peer reviewed scientific journals such as IEEE Magazine. The technology was also featured in the 2005 edition of NASA's Spinoff magazine that highlights significant technologies that were commercialized through NASA's technology transfer program.
"We are proud to announce the granting of the patent by the USPTO. This is a major milestone in the development of the technology and for our Company," said Mr. Jacques Tizabi, UDTT's Chief Executive Officer. "We also have several other technologies that are in the process of patent approval and we will continue to license more technologies and build up our technology portfolio," he added.
For more information on the USPTO please visit www.uspto.gov
For more information please visit www.udetection.com or
Email us at info@udetection.com.
About Universal Detection Technology
Universal Detection Technology is a developer of monitoring technologies, including bioterrorism detection devices. The Company on its own and with development partners is positioned to capitalize on opportunities related to Homeland Security. For example, the Company, in cooperation with NASA, has developed a bio-terror 'smoke' detector that detects certain bio hazard substances. For more information, please visit http://www.udetection.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Except for historical information contained herein, the statements in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual results, performance and achievement in the future to differ materially from forecasted results, performance, and achievement. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes in the Company's plans or expectations.