SBIR Phase I: Environmental water on site microbial contaminant sensor

SBIR 第一阶段：环境水体现场微生物污染物传感器

• 批准号: 1621593
• 负责人: John Gerdes
• 金额: $ 22.22万
• 依托单位: Visugen Global LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-01 至 2017-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1621593&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Environmental; water; site

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is that the product developed will enable local and remote environmental water microbe detection using internet-enabled smart devices. Detection is on-site within 30 minutes to monitor water close to the time it is sampled compared to current methods that require sending the sample to lab that conducts a test that takes 24 hours. The innovation involves a method to capture and concentrate genes from large volumes of water onto a unique binding material where they are counted. Clean water is critical to major economic sectors such as farm irrigation, livestock, food processing, and recreation and water testing is estimated to be a 1.2 billion dollar global market. The water test developed could be used in global settings and have a significant societal impact through improved water quality management especially in rural or developing country settings where is estimated that 780 million people consume unsafe water. The technical objectives in this Phase I research project are to advance a highly innovative technical approach for direct in the field detection of E. coli or Enterococcus contaminants in 100 milliliters of environmental water with results available in 30 minutes. These microbes are traditional indicator organisms that identify water with fecal contamination that could be unsafe. The technical hurdle addressed in this project which is finding low copies of bacteria present in a glass of water is not unique to water testing but is also an issue broadly anywhere pathogens or genes are a targets of detection. The research objectives to be completed will confirm our innovative strategy to release nucleic acids from cells, characterize fundamental properties of solid phase materials capable of capture and concentration of nucleic acids, and produce a prototype flow through cassette where specific gene sequences are detected. Achieving detection of pathogens that frequently are present in low copy numbers in large volumes (100 milliliters of environmental water, 10 milliliters of blood, food processing wash water, etc.) is a common technical hurdle that limits assay sensitivity.The innovative approach proposed provides a potential solution to this issue and further permits testing directly on site with a low cost, non-instrumented test that is easy to perform with result upload using a cell phone. The integrated strategy is a novel approach that overcomes the limitations of all current culture or current molecular methods for testing environmental water.

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，开发的产品将使用支持互联网的智能设备实现本地和远程环境水微生物检测。 检测是在30分钟内现场监测水接近采样的时间相比，目前的方法，需要发送样本到实验室进行测试，需要24小时。这项创新涉及一种从大量水中捕获基因并将其浓缩到一种独特的结合材料上的方法。 清洁水对农业灌溉、畜牧业、食品加工和娱乐等主要经济部门至关重要，据估计，全球水测试市场价值12亿美元。 开发的水测试可用于全球环境，并通过改善水质管理产生重大社会影响，特别是在农村或发展中国家环境中，估计有7.8亿人使用不安全的水。第一阶段研究项目的技术目标是提出一种高度创新的技术方法，用于现场直接检测E。大肠杆菌或肠球菌污染物在100毫升的环境水，结果可在30分钟内。这些微生物是传统的指示生物，可以识别粪便污染的水可能是不安全的。在这个项目中解决的技术障碍是发现一杯水中存在的低拷贝细菌，这并不是水测试所独有的，而是一个广泛的问题，任何病原体或基因都是检测目标。待完成的研究目标将证实我们的创新策略，即从细胞中释放核酸，表征能够捕获和浓缩核酸的固相材料的基本性质，并生产出检测特定基因序列的原型流通盒。实现对大量（100毫升环境水、10毫升血液、食品加工洗涤水等）中经常以低拷贝数存在的病原体的检测。所提出的创新方法为该问题提供了一种潜在的解决方案，并且进一步允许以低成本、非仪器化的测试直接在现场进行测试，该测试易于使用手机进行结果上传。综合策略是一种新的方法，克服了所有目前的文化或目前的分子方法测试环境水的局限性。