PFI-TT: Strengthening Agriculture Through Better Disease Detection

这一创新-技术转化伙伴关系项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是改善疾病诊断。所提出的技术为快速开发和优化诊断测试提供了一个过程。研究结果将在一个网站上公布，供世界各地实验室的订阅者使用。所提出的测试平台技术完全是虚拟的，不需要运输，从而节省了大量的时间和成本。一旦提出的技术得到验证、认可和广泛使用，它将有可能被制成便携的现场、笔或床边测试。提出的技术可以在一个样本中检测多种病原体。该系统适用于植物、动物和人类疾病。该项目最初将侧重于柑橘产业的需求。柑橘种植材料被运往世界各地。然而，在种植材料进入一个国家之前，它必须经过广泛的测试，以确保它没有携带任何来自世界其他地区的柑橘疾病。美国对所有柑橘品种进行了多达30种不同的类病毒、病毒、细菌和真菌疾病的检测。利用现有技术，这种宝贵的种植材料的测试和“固化”可能需要数年时间。该技术平台使研究人员能够在单个样本中检测所有病原体，从而节省了大量时间并降低了成本。本项目的研究目标是开发美国关注的柑橘类病原体诊断检测探针，并与现行标准并行进行检测。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is the improvement in disease diagnostics. The proposed technology provides a process for the rapid development and optimization of diagnostic tests. The results will be available on a website for use by subscribers in laboratories anywhere in the world. The proposed testing platform technology is entirely virtual and does not need shipping, thus saving significant time and costs. Once the proposed technology is verified, recognized, and in wide use, it will have the potential to be made portable for field, pen, or bedside testing. The proposed technology can test for multiple pathogens in one sample. The system works on plant, animal and human diseases.This project will initially focus on the needs of the citrus industry. Citrus planting materials are shipped all around the world. However, before planting material can enter a country, it has to go through extensive testing to ensure that it isn’t carrying any citrus disease from some other part of the world. The U.S. tests all citrus varieties for up to 30 different disease causing viroids, viruses, bacteria, and fungi. The testing and ‘curing’ of this valuable planting material can take years with available technologies. This technology platform enables researchers to test for all pathogens in a single sample, saving significant time and reducing costs. The research objectives of this project are to develop diagnostic test probes for citrus pathogens of concern to the U.S. and test them in parallel with the currently used standard.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.