STTR Phase I: Specialized high resolution imaging system for rapid batch screening of aflatoxin in corn

这项小型企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是可商业化部署的设备，用于筛选、检测和清除全球食品供应中受黄曲霉毒素污染的玉米。黄曲霉毒素是一种危险的真菌致癌物，它与肝癌、儿童发育迟缓、人类和动物的疾病和死亡以及美国和全球农民和粮食加工者的重大经济损失有关。快速批量筛选设备将扩大粮食行业对更多玉米进行黄曲霉毒素污染检测的能力，并最大限度地减少目前困扰黄曲霉毒素检测过程的高采样误差，并使下游面临更大的污染风险。除了批量筛选设备之外，还有机会开发手持设备来识别田间受污染的玉米，以及部署在谷物处理和食品加工设施中的连续流光学分选机，以去除受污染的玉米并保护健康谷物的市场价值。目标是1)增加美国和全球农民的收入；2)保护食品供应，降低农民、粮食加工者和消费者接触更多污染的风险；3)保障饲料供应，提高牲畜生产能力。该STTR一期项目旨在证明一种专门的高分辨率成像系统用于玉米黄曲霉毒素快速批量筛选的可行性。研究小组将利用玉米黄曲霉毒素检测专利算法构建原型单元和图像处理软件，并集成高分辨率双摄像头系统。利用现有的检测黄曲霉毒素的化学测试，谷物加工者很难在不造成操作严重延误的情况下测试更大的样本或每辆卡车。使用该技术进行快速批量筛选的关键技术障碍是对足够大小的样品进行可靠的成像分析，筛选速度足以使成像系统适应商业谷物处理操作而不会中断。通过使用快速批量筛选原型装置筛选数百个玉米样品，该团队将验证设备检测黄曲霉毒素污染玉米的真阳性和真阴性准确率为95%，在污染范围和比例上保持一致，处理速度足够快，可以由商业谷物处理商在每辆卡车上部署。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will be commercially deployable equipment for screening, detecting, and removing aflatoxin contaminated corn from the global food supply. Exposure to aflatoxin, a dangerous fungal carcinogen, has been linked to liver cancer, childhood stunting, illness and death in humans and animals, and major economic losses for farmers and grain handlers in the U.S. and globally. Rapid batch screening equipment will expand the capacity of the grain industry to test more corn for aflatoxin contamination and minimize the high sampling error that currently plagues the aflatoxin testing process and risks greater contamination exposure downstream. In addition to batch screening equipment, opportunities also exist to develop handheld devices to identify contaminated corn in the field, and continuous flow optical sorters, deployed at grain handling and food processing facilities, to remove the contaminated corn and protect the market value of the healthy grain. The goal is to 1) Increase revenue for farmers in the U.S. and globally; 2) Protect the food supply and reduce the risks of greater contamination exposure for farmers, grain handlers, and consumers; and 3) Protect feed supply and improve productivity of livestock.This STTR Phase I project proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of a specialized high resolution imaging system for rapid batch screening of aflatoxin in corn. The research team will build the prototype unit and image processing software with the patented algorithm for detection of aflatoxin in corn, integrated with a high resolution, dual-camera system. With existing chemical tests for aflatoxin detection, it is difficult for grain handlers to test larger samples or every truck without causing major delays in operations. The key technical hurdle for rapid batch screening with this technology is reliable imaging analysis of sufficient size samples, screened fast enough for the imaging system to fit into commercial grain handling operations without disruption. By screening hundreds of corn samples with the rapid batch screening prototype unit, the team will validate device accuracy of 95% true positive and true negative for detection of corn contaminated with aflatoxin, consistently across contamination ranges and proportions, at a processing speed fast enough to be deployed by commercial grain handlers on every truckload.