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 provides a portable system for collecting and extracting a sample from a surface using a swab having a head at one end of an extended shaft with a lumen extending substantially throughout the shaft length. A portable canister contains pressurized wet foam, and a cradle houses the canister with a canister valve actuator connected to the cradle. A dispensing lever connected to the canister valve actuator drives actuation so that the canister valve actuator presses on the valve stem on the pressurized canister.

When the dispensing lever is pressed, pressurized wet foam is introduced at an opposite end of the extended shaft relative to the head. The wet foam travels through the lumen and elutes samples from the head, implementing a wet-foam elution extraction mechanism within a portable swab format.

The document further describes foam-elution flow modes and system configurations, including distributing foam through the lumen and out through the swab head, with refinements such as shaft apertures or a porous shaft section near the head. Other embodiments describe wet foam flowing across the swab head exterior and collecting eluted wet-foam sample in a collection receptacle, with controlled foam dispensing using valves and optional swab ejection.

Claims Coverage

The partial content includes one independent claim, clm-00001, directed to a portable swab-based sample collection and extraction system using pressurized wet foam delivered through a swab lumen. The independent claim is refined by dependent claims that add structural and flow-control features, including head-side apertures or porous sections, a collection receptacle, orifice flow control, electromechanical volume control, and canister constituent limitations.

Across the independent claim and its refinements, the core claim coverage centers on a portable swab with a lumen enabling pressurized wet-foam travel and sample elution from the swab head, actuated via a canister valve actuator and dispensing lever. Dependent features further specify how foam is distributed near the head, how eluted sample is collected, and how foam output is controlled via an orifice and electromechanical volume control, with canister constituents defined as water, surfactant, buffer, and a water-soluble gas.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications