I-Corps: Commercialization of Portable Sensor for Crop Disease Detection

拥有一个平均规模农场的无性农民每年在杀虫剂和杀菌剂上花费数万美元，作为预防措施，成本约为每英亩210美元，需要在整个季节进行多次喷洒。通过在大片农田上减少按需施药和/或选择性施药的频率，最大限度地减少杀虫剂的使用，可以减少不必要的喷洒，并为营养农民提供巨大的环境和经济利益。目前用于农作物疾病检测的方法耗时、破坏性、需要熟练的分析人员，需要实验室设置，不幸的是，既不提供实时监测，也不提供田间部署的可能性。一种快速、实时、非破坏性的异地感染早期检测方法将有助于作物生产者控制感染，防止疾病传播，从而避免巨大的损害。在该项目中，该团队开发了一种新型的基于酶-纳米材料复合材料的传感器平台，用于高度选择性地检测作物和收获后的产品中的病害。该项目开发的基础科学包括基于酶-纳米材料复合材料的电流型生物传感器的开发，用于高选择性地检测水杨酸甲酯，水杨酸甲酯是植物和植物部位在病原真菌感染过程中释放的化感物质。拟议的创新将直接使农业、食品加工和搬运行业的三个不同客户群受益。据估计，一家中等规模农场的农作物生产者只需花费数千美元，就可以在一年内为不必要的预防性喷洒节省数万美元。每次检测只需几美元，食品质量和安全检查员就可以识别变质情况，并节省数百万美元的食品损害。

Vegetative farmers who own an average size farm spend tens of thousands of dollars each year on pesticide and fungicide as preventive measure that costs about $210/acre and needs several applications through the seasons. Minimizing the pesticide usage through less frequent 'on-demand application' and/or selective application on the huge crop field could minimize unnecessary sprayings and provide huge environmental and economic benefits for vegetative farmers. Currently used methods for disease detection in agricultural crops are time consuming, destructive, demand skilled analysts, require a laboratory set-up and unfortunately do not offer either real time monitoring or on-field deployment possibilities. A rapid, real-time, non-destructive, ex-situ method for early detection of infections will help crop producers to contain the infection, prevent the spread of disease and hence avoid colossal damage. In this project, the team has developed a novel enzyme-nanomaterial composite based sensor platform for highly selective detection of diseases in crops and post-harvest produce.The fundamental science developed in this project involves the development of amperometric biosensors based on enzyme-nanomaterial composite for highly selective detection of methyl salicylate, an allelochemical released by plants and plant parts during pathogenic fungal infections. The proposed innovation will directly benefit three different customer segments in the agricultural, food processing and handling industry. At an estimated cost of a few thousand dollars, a crop producer with mid-size farm could save tens of thousands of dollars over a period of a year on unnecessary preventive sprayings. At only a few dollars per test, food quality and safety inspectors could identify spoilage and save millions of dollars in food damage.