A pen-like device as a sensitive explosives detector
the field, customs police, regular police, and even environmentalists.
“Sometimes we face environmental hazards that use peroxide-based chemicals,” Keinan relates. “But it’s especially useful at airports for reducing false positives any time peroxides or suspected peroxide materials are found. The main thing is the war against terror.
“Some major airlines equip every plane with these detectors. If, for example, the 25th of December Nigerian guy — if they knew using this device what material they had on board, they could have reported the material before landing. Knowing beforehand is important to know how dangerous a material is and how it should be handled, whether it’s real or fake,” Keinan explains.
Keinan hopes that the ACRO-P.E.T. device will be made available on all flights, giving airline hosts a quick and accurate way to test suspicious materials they may discover. This will help ground authorities to prepare better and respond more rapidly if a suspected terrorist manages to make his or her way on board.
Hard to detect, until now
TATP is extremely lethal and has played a role in major terrorist attacks for the past three decades, relates Keinan: “There are several reasons for the popularity of TATP among terror groups all over the world. It’s easy to prepare from inexpensive raw materials, and was difficult to detect [until now].”
Previous research on the science behind the device was reported in the journal Crystal Growth and Design. Fortunately for Keinan, he retained royalty rights after the Technion showed no interest in helping him to commercialize the research.
Keinan and Dawson’s research was funded by organizations like the Binational Science Foundation (BSF), an Israel-U.S. initiative that funds science research between the two countries to meet common goals.
“We invented the chemistry,” Keinan told Kloosterman. “It’s based on enzyme catalysis, a colorimetric system sensitive to hydrogen peroxide. We developed the methodology, and hold the American patent, which is the basis of the product. It’s been commercialized for about one and a half years and it’s picking up momentum.”
Dawson’s lab has developed new protein engineering tools that enable synthetic organic chemistry to be applied directly to proteins. These tools are being used to address fundamental questions in protein folding, stability and enzymatic catalysis.
Ten years of science
Working on the science behind it for about ten years, it took several years for the researchers to find the right investors to take their idea to the commercial phase. The Israeli contribution escorted the product through development, and through the first, second and third prototypes. The final product is now in use around the world in South Africa, Australia and China, and also in the United States where the company is now focusing its marketing efforts.
Aside from his work on ACRO-P.E.T., Keinan is still working on research at the Technion and is an associate professor at Scripps. He told Kloosterman that he would gladly tell her about his latest project, but “it’s security-related and highly classified.”
