Luminex Corp. (Austin, TX) announced that it has signed a teaming agreement with Northrop Grumman Corp. to collaborate in the creation of next generation biodetectors that will continuously monitor the environment and serve as an early warning system to alert authorities regarding the release of potentially harmful airborne agents.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will work together to develop a new fully autonomous biological detection system. The system is being developed for evaluation by the United States government as part of a national network of fully automated environment monitoring devices.

The next generation biodetectors will form a fully autonomous network that will continuously monitor the air for potential biothreat agents. Luminex's xMAP Technology will allow the next generation biodetectors to run many simultaneous tests on a single sample.