SBIR Phase II: A Rapid Foodborne Pathogen Analyzer

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目建议开发一种食源性病原体分析仪原型，它将使用一种新的信用卡大小的采样设备，在1-2小时内以所需的灵敏度(10-100 cfu/g)提取、检测、识别和量化食品基质中特定病原体的存在。目标是在2小时内将菠菜中104cfu/g鼠伤寒沙门氏菌的第一阶段成功检测扩大到设备上和奶酪中104cfu/g鼠伤寒沙门氏菌的检测范围，哈密瓜中的单核细胞增生性李斯特菌，牛肉中的大肠杆菌O157：H7，以及家禽中的空肠弯曲杆菌。在美国，食源性疾病每年影响多达5000万人，导致13万人住院，3000多人死亡。不幸的是，目前用于检测这些病原体的方法依赖于需要1-4天的漫长的生长增菌步骤，从而无法有效地防止受污染的食物的分发和消费。如果成功，该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是开发一种平台技术，在1-2小时内检测食品处理设备或食品中的病原体。这将提高生产率，最大限度地减少提款和召回，最重要的是，最大限度地减少疾病爆发，并有可能挽救生命，从而使食品行业受益。分析仪的占地面积很小，可以在加工厂和辅助实验室进行测量，最终可以在食品来源、港口和检查站进行测量。它还可以加快确定暴发源的进程，帮助将疾病和死亡降至最低。开发拟议的采样系统所获得的知识将有助于开发类似的系统，可以监测供水中的病原体、检测空气中的生物制剂和医院患者中的传染性病原体(例如检测金黄色葡萄球菌、人类免疫缺陷病毒、结核分枝杆菌)。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project proposes to develop a prototype foodborne pathogen analyzer that will employ a novel credit card sized sampling device to extract, detect, identify, and quantify the presence of specific pathogens in food matrices in 1 - 2 hours at the required sensitivity (10 - 100 cfu/g). The goal is to extend the successful Phase I measurements of 104 cfu/g Salmonella typhimurium in spinach within 2 hours to 10-100 cfu/g S. typhimurium on equipment and in cheese, Listeria monocytogenes in cantaloupe, Escherichia coli O157:H7 in ground beef, and Campylobacter jejuni in poultry. Foodborne diseases affect as many as 50 million people in the United States each year, resulting in 130,000 hospitalizations and over 3,000 deaths. Unfortunately, current methods used to detect these pathogens rely on lengthy growth enrichment steps that take 1 - 4 days, negating effective prevention of contaminated food distribution and consumption. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project, if successful, will be the development of a platform technology to detect pathogens on food handling equipment or in food in 1 - 2 hours. This will benefit the food industry by increasing productivity, minimizing withdrawals and recalls, and most importantly, minimizing illness outbreaks and potentially saving lives. The small footprint of the analyzer will allow measurements in process plants and supporting labs, and eventually, at food sources, ports, and inspection stations. It can also speed the process of identifying the source of an outbreak, helping minimize illnesses and deaths. The knowledge gained by developing the proposed sampling system will allow developing similar systems that can monitor pathogens in water supplies, detect bioagents in air, and infectious pathogens in hospital patients (e.g. detection of Staphylococcus aureus, human immunodeficiency virus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis).