NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – CombiMatrix said today that proposed US military funding for fiscal year 2009 includes $2 million for the company to develop a health surveillance system.
Senator Patty Murray (D – Wash.) included the funding for Mukilteo, Wash.-based CombiMatrix as part of $72 million in federal defense work for Washington companies in the 2009 Defense Appropriations Bill, which passed the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee on Sept. 10.
CombiMatrix said it will receive the funding if and when the bill passes, as long as the funds are not struck from the bill beforehand.
The company would use the funding to work with the Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a semiconductor microarray and instrumentation platform to detect changes in body chemistry caused by traumas.
David Danley, director of homeland security and defense programs at Combimatrix, said in a statement that the company will “further develop its microarray platform technology to provide the military healthcare system with new tools for treating everything from bullet wounds to battlefield stress.”
The funding would enable the firm “to develop new assays on our microarray platform to identify changes in body chemistry and gene expression that are indicative of adverse changes in physiological performance,” Danley added.