ARL 25-13

Invention Disclosure

ARL FORM 25-13

TITLE OF INVENTION: bioMATADOR: BIOcompatible Material Agnostic Testbed for Autonomous Degradation Of Recalcitrants

1. What is this Invention?

(e.g., a short 3-sentence “summarized” description as a more “detailed” description will be required further into this invention disclosure)

Polymer plastics are ubiquitous in the modern world, including in U.S. Army fielded material. These plastics are too strong (i.e. highly recalcitrant, inert, and nonbiodegradable) and take hundreds of years to degrade. There is need for high-throughput systems to investigate polymer degradation induced by bacterial enzymatic mechanisms. This invention describes a microfluidic-based testbed for monitoring bio-derived molecule degradation of recalcitrant materials. The testbed has the enhancing characteristic features of being optically clear, compatible with traditional and fluorescent microscopy, and allows for a continual and autonomous degradation scheme. This invention enables autonomous biodegradation of materials on the scale of weeks- to months.

2. What is the basic premise of the design?
The basic premise of the design is a microfluidic chamber for hosting the test material sets, an optically transparent microfluidic channel surface and ‘ceiling’, and fluidic connection ports communicating from the hermetically sealed channel system to the bacterial-enzyme repository. These details are further explained and demonstrated in the supplementary documentation containing the prototype design. The testbed system is designed in such a manner to enable precise temperature control along with compatibility with automated monitoring and analysis systems (e.g. fluorescent microscopy)

3. What is new about this Invention?
This is the first known microfluidics device that can be utilized to study enzymatic breakdown of materials of varying chemistries (polymeric and biological materials) by incubating enzyme with the materials, while also enabling simultaneous storage of enzyme at cooler temperatures for stability. The developed platform is compatible with continuous, long-term enzymatic degradation studies while also allowing for automated imaging and analysis.

4. Has this Invention been verified?

(e.g., does it exist, is it factual, is there a test module)

Yes. Prototyped testing of devices confirmed microfluidic system compatibility with cellulose, nylon, and polyester textile fibers of unknown composition and treatment. The initial prototype has been assembled and concept-tested for the first use-case scenario