Devices, systems and methods for surface sampling

Inventors

Adolphson, Alec D. • Packingham, Ann K. • Page, Andrew E. • Alburty, David S. • Packingham, Zachary A. • Birkenholz, John D. • Fischer, Michael F.

Assignees

Innovaprep LLC

Abstract

Devices, systems and methods are disclosed which relate to using wet foam elution for removal of particles from swabs and wipes. This allow users to capture particles from surfaces and recover them by elution into small sample volumes for subsequent detection for human clinical, veterinary, food safety, pharmaceutical, outbreak investigations, forensics, biodefense and bioterrorism response, environmental monitoring, and other applications where collection of samples from surfaces and humans or animals is required. More specifically, the swabs or wipes are used to collect samples in the standard ways that commercially available swabs and wipes are in use today; from, for instance, food preparation surfaces in food plants, from production equipment in pharmaceutical facilities, for collection of dry powders during bioterrorism event response, and for collection of clinical samples such as nasal, throat, nasopharyngeal, and wounds.

Core Innovation

The invention relates to wet-foam elution techniques for recovering samples from swabs and surface wipes into small liquid sample volumes for downstream detection. The approach introduces wet foam into an elution container so that wet foam expands and elutes material from a surface of the swab head. The described rationale includes foam expansion to concentrate elution, reduced channeling, and rapid foam collapse.

In one workflow, the system uses a swab having a head on an extended shaft and places the swab head into a hollow-shaft swab lumen region such that wet foam is flowed through the swab and out the swab head surface for elution. In another workflow, a clam-shell cartridge provides a sealed chamber that accommodates the swab head, where wet foam is flowed across swab-head surfaces using sealing and hinge arrangements while the extended shaft substantially extends outside the closed cartridge.

In a further workflow, compressed wipe materials are eluted using foam in an elutor ring or cup environment with gas venting, enabling foam elution into a small sample container or sample reservoir for downstream handling. The document further describes prototype testing using fluorescent microspheres to demonstrate detectable recovery, and device integration with an electromechanical concentrating pipette system alongside foam collapsing reservoirs and pressurized foam sources.

Claims Coverage

The document includes three independent claims covering a portable system that collects and extracts a sample from a surface using a swab sealed in a clam-shell cartridge and pressurized wet foam introduced through a fluid port to elute samples from the swab head surface without compressing the swab head. Across the independent claims, the inventive features center on the clam-shell sealed chamber arrangement, the use of pressurized wet foam via a fluid port, and maintaining the swab head substantially sealed without compression while the extended shaft extends outside the cartridge.

All independent claims require a portable surface-sampling system that seals the swab head inside a clam-shell cartridge without compressing it, while pressurized wet foam is introduced through a fluid port to elute samples from the swab head surface.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications