Crosslink nears Defense project 'crunch time'

Amid whirring machines and quiet concentration, the clock is ticking on the third floor of the Jordan Valley Innovation Center.

Five researchers from St. Louis-based Crosslink Inc. are working tirelessly to meet a deadline at the end of July - a milestone in a U.S. Defense project now three years running.

The staff is headed up by project coordinator Eve Fabrizio and technical lead Von Ebron, and it's accompanied by two subcontracted researchers from Missouri State University's Center for Biomedical and Life Sciences.

Since 2006, the team has been developing a process for detoxifying fabrics by coating them with certain substances that, when activated by a power source, quickly destroy chemical and biological weapons that come in contact with the fabrics. The federally funded project is being developed for the U.S. Army to use on tents and other shelters.

Until now, Crosslink has tested the polymer detoxification system on chemical and biological agents that only mimic the properties of real weapons, which could range from anthrax to mustard gas.

Later this month, representatives from a number of vested agencies - including the Army's Soldier Systems Center and Soldier Research, Development & Engineering Center and the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Threat Reduction Agency - will review Crosslink's findings. If all goes well, they'll give the green light for the next step: live-agent testing.

The first week of July, Ebron traveled to the Crosslink headquarters in St. Louis - a trip he makes at least once a month - to silk-screen the detoxification system onto Army shelter fabric. He returned with about 600 device samples, most of which are being sent for the review.

"We're at crunch time," Ebron said. "We can't submit samples that will fail."

Crosslink researchers don't expect anything less than a favorable review, Ebron said, given the precision and care his team has dedicated to such a complex - and expensive - project. The first phase received $2.8 million in federal funding, and the ongoing second phase received about $5 million, according to Fabrizio. Results gathered to date have been optimistic, Ebron said, though he declined to elaborate, noting that the Defense system's vulnerabilities must stay confidential.

With a positive review, Crosslink would partially turn the project over to Columbus, Ohio-based Battelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit laboratory management organization. Battelle's Ohio facility is one of only a few in the country equipped to do live-agent testing with toxic chemicals and bacteria, a process that likely will run about six months. Results from Battelle's testing will be sent to Crosslink regularly, and Ebron plans to attend at least one dry-run test in Ohio, he said.

While live-agent testing occurs a few hundred miles away, Ebron and his team will continue working with the system in Springfield. Their next goal is to produce the devices on 1 square meter of fabric - about 10 times the size of the 1-foot-by-1-foot fabric samples they currently produce.

Live-agent testing is slated to wrap up with the close of Phase II at the end of the year, when the project's current funding runs out. Officials will apply for Phase III funding - an undetermined amount - later this year, and that round could kick off in early 2010, Ebron said.

Phase III objectives aren't laid out yet, but Ebron called it the "transition to commercialization" phase, when the system is tested for flexibility, flame resistance, and its ability to hold up in severe weather and temperatures. The team also will look to refine its manufacturing process - determining the best suppliers, doing an in-depth cost analysis and establishing production times. A fourth phase could surface, depending on what's accomplished in the third phase.

"There's what they call the technology readiness level, and if you're at six, you're ready to go," Ebron said. "We're at (between) two and three."[[In-content Ad]]