On May 7, 2010, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) biologists and informatics experts announced the Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array (LLMDA) that can simultaneously identify thousands of known viruses and bacteria within 24 hours.

Unlike current detection systems, which focused on small, prioritized sets of high-risk biological pathogens, LLMDA enabled identification of a broad range of organisms, including pathogens on a priority screening list, DNA-sequenced bacteria or viruses, or even emerging pathogens containing DNA sequences previously identified in other pathogens.