PFI-TT: Rapid, portable antibody-based detection of meat species content in food samples

这一创新-技术转化伙伴关系(PFI-TT)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是能够对食品样品中的肉类种类含量进行实用的现场检测。评估肉类含量对于遵从性、客户对食品纯度的要求以及禁止食用某些肉类的宗教信仰都很重要。拟议的技术包括一种简单、便携的测试，用户只需很少的培训就可以在实验室外使用。拟议的检测将能够快速、定量地检测食品中许多类型的肉类的少量百分比。当相关蛋白质与旨在识别它们的抗体结合时，该分析利用了光反射的变化。由于抗体可以检测多种类型的分子，如过敏原、病毒病原体和神经毒素，这项技术可以扩展到食品过敏原、医疗诊断、防御和公共安全方面的筛查需求。拟议的项目将开发具有检测抗体功能的底物和便携式光学阅读器来解释结果。其工作原理是，当探测到特定的几何形状时，少量靶分子与固定在硅上的抗体的化学结合大大增加了硅衬底的反射率。该项目确定了将适当的抗体固定在底物上以保持其功能的实用方法，开发了从肉类样品中提取蛋白质的简单方案，并制造了一种便携式原型，可测量底物接触这些样品时反射率的微小变化。重要的是，该项目将开发一种协议，阻止不感兴趣的分子不分青红皂白地粘连。此外，该项目将量化反射率的增加与所测试的肉类品种之间的关系。该项目将测试原型阅读器、基板和方案，以评估有效性和简单性。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/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project will be to enable practical in-situ detection of meat species content in food samples. Assessing meat content is important for compliance, customer demands regarding food purity, and religious beliefs forbidding the consumption of certain meats. The proposed technology consists of a simple and portable test usable outside a laboratory setting by users with little training. The proposed test will enable rapid, quantitative detection of small percentages of many types of meat in food. The assay uses changes in light reflection when relevant proteins bind to antibodies designed to recognize them. Because antibodies detect many types of molecules such as allergens, viral pathogens and neurotoxins, this technology can be extended to screening needs in food allergens, medical diagnostics, defense, and public safety. The proposed project will develop substrates functionalized with detection antibodies and a portable optical reader to interpret results. The operating principle is that chemical binding of small amounts of target molecules to antibodies immobilized on silicon substantially increases the reflectivity of the silicon substrate when probed in a specialized geometry. The project identifies practical approaches to immobilizing appropriate antibodies on the substrate so that they retain their function, develops simple protocols to extract proteins from meat samples, and makes a portable prototype that measures small changes in reflectivity when the substrate is exposed to those samples. Importantly, the project will develop a protocol that inhibits indiscriminate adhesion of molecules that are not of interest. In addition, the project will quantify the relationship between the increase in reflectivity and the tested meat species. The project will test the prototype reader, substrates and protocol to evaluate efficacy and simplicity.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.