MTEC Pre-Announcement: “PRimer and prObe Manufacturing PlaTform (PROMPT)”

The Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC) is seeking proposals for the development of a fully automated, man-portable, and ruggedized prototype platform for the on-demand, expeditionary manufacturing of clinical-quality nucleic acid primers and probes. The system must be designed for operation in far forward or austere environments by non-specialist personnel. The successful outcome will be a self-contained system capable of producing sequence-verified, high-purity oligonucleotides from a digital sequence file within hours. • The system must integrate nucleic acid synthesis, purification, and quality control into compact, ruggedized instruments. • The system must provide high coupling efficiency oligonucleotide synthesis suitable for at least 20–40 nucleotide (nt) PCR primers and fluorescent probes. • The system must demonstrate end-to-end workflows through pilot projects that replicate a commercial PCR assay. • The system must be designed to meet MIL-STD-810 testing requirements and have reduced power draw for battery operations.