SBIR Phase I: Handheld graphene-based sensors for rapid detection of Salmonella species in food processing facilities

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是更快、更准确地检测食品加工厂中的沙门氏菌种类。沙门氏菌是食源性疾病最常见的报告原因。加工设施中的食品污染可能导致严重的公共卫生问题，以及数百万食品单位的代价高昂的召回。目前缺乏快速和准确的传感技术来确定食品加工厂中的沙门氏菌，这推迟了适当控制措施的启动，并增加了将污染和食源性疾病传播给消费者的可能性。这项技术将以更低的成本在整个制造过程中实现更频繁的测试。这项技术可望应用于其他病原体的检测。拟议的项目将创建和测试一个快速(20分钟)、手持、灵敏(每毫升1个细菌细胞)的平台，使食品加工设施能够在现场检测沙门氏菌。这项技术的创新之处在于能够避免细菌聚集(22至48小时允许细菌生长)，同时仍能灵敏和选择性地检测沙门氏菌物种。该设备使用测试试剂盒将细菌直接带到检测表面，检测表面由印刷或在试纸上刻画的石墨烯组成，随后用沙门氏菌特异性抗体进行功能化。独特的激光处理在石墨烯中诱导出纳米级的3D结构表面，使其成为生物传感和抗体附着的高导电性，这是实现低检测下限和提高测试灵敏度的理想特性。这些技术可以结合到一个便携式平台中，以制造用户友好的手持生物传感器，并显示细菌的定量计数。集成平台(试纸和试剂盒)将设计成与现有便携式电子阅读器的接口方式，与糖尿病患者在家中监测血糖水平的方式大致相同，血液测试试纸连接到带有数字显示器的便携式阅读器。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is faster and accurate detection of Salmonella species in food processing plants. Salmonella bacteria are the most frequently reported cause of foodborne illness. Food contamination in processing facilities can lead to serious public health problems as well as costly recalls of millions of food units. Rapid and accurate sensing technology is currently lacking for definitive detection of Salmonella in food-processing plants, which delays initiation of appropriate control measures and increases the likelihood of spreading contamination and foodborne illnesses to consumers. This technology will enable more frequent testing throughout the entire manufacturing process at reduced costs. It is fully expected that this technology could be applied to the detection of other pathogens.The proposed project will create and test a rapid (20 minutes), hand-held, sensitive (1 bacteria cell per milliliter) platform to enable food-processing facilities to detect Salmonella on site. The innovation of this technology lies in the ability to avoid bacterial enrichment (22 to 48 hours to allow bacteria to grow), while still sensitively and selectively detecting Salmonella species. The device uses a testing cartridge to bring bacteria directly to a detection surface, which consists of graphene printed or scribed on a test-strip and subsequently functionalized with Salmonella-specific antibodies. Unique laser processing induces a 3D-structured surface at the nanoscale level in graphene that becomes highly conductive for biosensing and for antibody attachment, which are desirable properties for enabling low detection limits and increasing test sensitivity. These technologies can be combined into a portable platform to make a user-friendly handheld biosensor and displaying quantitative counts of bacteria. The integrated platform (test strip and cartridge) will be designed to interface with existing portable electrical readers in much the same fashion that diabetics monitor blood glucose levels at home with a blood test strip that connects to a portable reader with a digital display.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.