Implant Sciences signs second CRADA with US DHS TSL

Implant Sciences and the US Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Laboratory (TSL) have signed second cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA).

Under the new 12-month CRADA, TSL will use the QS-B220, having passed TSA qualification testing, as a gold standard explosives trace detector.

The company signed first CRADA with the TSL for its QS-B220 desktop explosives trace detector (ETD) began November 2011.

The QS-B220 at the TSL will gather information, which will be shared with Implant Sciences for the development of next generation trace detection technology.

A part of the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), the TSL aims to enhance homeland security, including the research, development and validation of solutions to detect and mitigate the threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Implant Sciences technology vice president Todd Silvestri said that the company’s first CRADA with the TSL offered critical input, which was used to enhance the performance of our QS-B220 to meet the TSA’s standards,

"We believe that the partnership that was developed and the valuable feedback we received from the endeavor helped us tremendously in the QS-B220 attaining the TSA’s qualified status for air cargo screening and in passing the QT&E portion of the TSA qualification for checkpoint and checked baggage," Silvestri added.

TSL establishes CRADAs as public-private partnerships to expeditiously mature and deploy security technologies as well as to prepare products to achieve Transportation Security Administration (TSA) certification/qualification.

Implant Sciences president and CEO Glenn Bolduc said, "We believe these studies with the TSL will help to leverage the QS-B220’s capabilities and will prove essential to advancing the standards of the trace detection market."

Research, test and, evaluation will be carried out by TSL at its facility at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center, Atlantic City International Airport, New Jersey, US.