History

M-Vac Systems was founded by Dr. Bruce Bradley. As owner of a well known microbiology lab in the heart of southern Idaho, Dr. Bradley's laboratory served the dairy and food industries in that area for over 25 years. Since a major part of his business focused on solving an array of microbiological problems in the food industry, it naturally led him to search for better ways to collect surface pathogen samples.

The original idea for the M-Vac surface pathogen collection technology came to Dr. Bradley in the early 1990s when Dr. Bradley concluded that surface sample acquisition was the "weak link" in the food safety environment, and the likely cause for undetected microbes in other industries. Since wet-vacuum systems are used to clean a variety of surfaces, Dr. Bradley embarked on a long journey to perfect a hand-held wet-vacuum sampling system. Instead of sampling a few square inches of surface area, this new technology would be able to sample several square feet. The M-Vac would also be capable of suspending the collected pathogens in a liquid to preserve them for lab analysis.

Since then, many experts in food safety and security, counter-bioterrorism, first response, law enforcement, forensic DNA, pharmaceutical, national defense, and homeland security have recognized the superior sampling capabilities of the M-Vac.  The M-Vac was the recipient of the IAFP Innovation Award in 2008, the UVEF Most Innovative Product Award in 2013 and the Utah Innovation of the Year Award in 2016 in Mechanical Systems. It has helped a number of investigators solve more crime and continues to build momentum in the forensic DNA collection market in the US and around the world.  To date the M-Vac System is being used in the United States, China, South Africa, Russia, the UK, and more.