Design and Engineering of a Multi-Target (Multiplex) DNA Simulant to Evaluate Nulceic Acid Based Assays for Detection of Biological Threat Agents

Abstract : We designed and engineered a non-infectious Bio-threat simulant that included the nucleic acid signature of Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, Coxiella Burneti, Brucella sp., Francicella tularensis, Entherohemorragic E. coli, O157:H7, Burkholderia mallei, Burkholderia pseudomallei and Variola virus (smallpox virus). A chimera of 2040 bp was engineered to produce PCR amplicons of different sizes in a single Multiplex reaction designed for the rapid identification of the threat agents selected above.