SBIR Phase II: Rapid detection of phages in microbial fermentation processes

这一小型企业创新研究(SBIR)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是降低成本和因乳制品和其他产品发酵中的噬菌体污染而造成的生产力损失。噬菌体污染是食品和制药行业发酵过程失败的主要原因。由于原料(牛奶)和必要的微生物培养物供应商的多样性，食品发酵过程中的噬菌体污染风险显著增加，特别是在乳制品行业。目前和新兴的分析技术不能快速检测牛奶等食品原料中的噬菌体。因此，污染的风险，以及缺乏快速检测方法，给乳制品行业造成了重大的经济损失。及早检测噬菌体污染将允许对发酵过程进行早期干预，这将显著节省成本。此外，该测试还可以扩展到其他食品、制药和生化生产领域。SBIR项目通过一种新的光子平台解决了在发酵过程中快速检测噬菌体污染的需求。该平台结合了纳米光子学、微流体学和电泳学，并基于加州大学戴维斯分校的发现。该系统的重点是利用电泳法操纵带电噬菌体，并加速它们在细菌中的扩增。此外，该系统使用将噬菌体电泳法捕获到纳米光子晶体中，以实现对目标噬菌体的高灵敏检测。该平台的显著特点是：a)高吞吐量，快速捕获噬菌体；b)高灵敏度和大动态范围用于定量噬菌体浓度；c)可扩展设计，可低成本生产。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to reduce cost and loss of productivity due to bacteriophage (phage) contamination in fermentation of dairy and other products. Bacteriophage contamination is the leading cause of failure in fermentation processes used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The risk of phage contamination in food fermentation processes, particularly in the dairy industry, is significantly enhanced due to a large diversity of suppliers of both the raw ingredient (milk) and the necessary microbial cultures. The current and emerging analytical technologies cannot rapidly detect phages in food materials such as milk. Thus, the combination of the risk of contamination, and the lack of rapid detection methods, results in a significant economic loss for the dairy industry. Early detection of phage contamination will permit early intervention in the fermentation process, which will lead to significant cost savings. In addition, the test could be extended to other food areas, pharmaceutical production, and biochemical production.The SBIR project addresses the need for rapid detection of phage contamination in a fermentation process through a novel photonic platform. The platform combines nanophotonics, microfluidics, and electrophoresis, and is based on discoveries made at University of California - Davis. The system is focused on the manipulation of charged phages with electrophoresis, and their accelerated amplification in bacteria. In addition, the system uses electrophoretic capture of phages into a nanophotonic crystal to achieve highly sensitive detection of the target phages. The salient features of the platform are: a) High-throughput, fast trapping of phages; b) excellent sensitivity and large dynamic range for quantification of phage concentration; and c) scalable design that can be produced at low cost.