New facility expands capacity for engineering, research, testing and production

VALDOSTA, Ga., Nov. 8 — Salvus, LLC, a CJB company, showcased its new facility, expanded capabilities and research developments during an open house and media day for more than 100 guests on Nov. 3 in Valdosta, Ga.

“We are proud to take the next step in our evolution as Salvus in opening our new facility that will enhance our research capabilities, power our testing capacity and deliver on our mission to detect our customers’ concerns,” said Clinton Beeland, president and CEO of Salvus.

“Salvus™ Detection Technology holds great promise as the world’s first handheld chemical and biological interferometric detector,” he elaborated. “This groundbreaking technology can rapidly identify chemical and biological substances in liquid, air or surface environments at detection levels consistent with the gold standards used today.”

The first Salvus analyzer is a lightweight, easy-to-use handheld device that can be fit with one of two types of cartridges – a discreet sample cartridge or a flow monitoring cartridge for applications where ongoing monitoring is required. The cartridges contain a waveguide that can be imprinted with multiple receptors, which may include antibody, antigen, aptamer, RNA, DNA or molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP). Salvus technology can be incorporated into a facility’s processes and adapted to fit on multiple other form factors, such as monitoring stations or unmanned vehicles (UGVs, UAVs).

The technology’s capabilities caught the interest of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS), which recently signed a Cooperative Research & Development Agreement with Salvus to explore agricultural and food safety applications. Salvus also continues sponsored research with Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), the original developers of the interferometric detection technology, in the areas of health care, environmental sciences, food safety and agriculture. At the recent Poultry Tech Summit, Salvus shared results from cooperative research and development with GTRI that focused on monitoring and regulating levels of peracetic acid (PAA), which is highly effective as a sanitizer against bacteria like Campylobacter and Salmonella, during poultry processing.

“The successes we’re seeing in our research and testing efforts combined with the advancements we’re making in the design and scalability of the handheld device, discreet sample cartridge and flow monitoring cartridge are bringing us closer to commercial readiness,” Beeland explained. “As a result, we now have agreements with multiple commercial partners for delivering the platform to select markets. Our new facility enables our launch into commercial application.”

New facility designed for the future

Projections for the new facility include supporting an additional 50-75 employees in the fields of science, engineering, biology, technology and precision manufacturing over the next three years based on needs and ramp-up speed with partner companies. The new facility features multiple lab areas to develop, produce and run target-specific analysis, or assays, as well as manufacturing and packaging space to prepare, assemble and package the technology components to meet commercial demands.

To demonstrate the capabilities of the technology, the team from GTRI attached the sensor to an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), then they guided it to an open container holding a chemical target. The cartridge was configured to detect ammonia. Results were nearly instantaneous and displayed on a large screen, showing a spike representing the presence of the ammonia. Results were both qualitative (yes, the target is present) and quantitative (at this specific level).

With applicability across a multitude of applications in numerous industries, including human health, animal health, food, agriculture, water management and industrial, Salvus detection technology is a first-of-its-kind in its:

• Flexibility to monitor and detect both chemicals and biologicals either discreetly or through monitoring applications.
• Ability to deliver results within minutes or seconds instead of hours or days.
• Adaptability to be deployed on multiple form factors (e.g., hand-held, monitoring stations, unmanned vehicles).
• Capacity to do multiplexing, or detecting multiple targets within the same sample, which is particularly important to food safety, human health and animal health.

Salvus continues to pursue potential partners with detection needs across industry sectors, and their new facility provides expanded capacity for all aspects of development, testing and commercialization.

“Salvus is excited to engage with partner companies who align culturally and strategically with us, who have sizable market access with service and training support, and who are willing to work as partners to scale manufacturing and production,” Beeland said. “We see a long future for our technology with ongoing assay development as targets evolve over time, and we look forward to supporting our customers through those evolutions.”