Homogeneous Plasmonic Assays for Instantaneous Microbial Detection

PI：Abbas，Abdennour建议编号：1605191a将研究一种快速鉴定和量化食品和环境样品中微生物含量和类型的新方法。如果成功，这些结果可以满足目前在食品安全和食品腐败检测方面的需求。将研究一种快速鉴定和量化食品和环境样品中微生物含量和类型的新方法。将开发快速筛查酵母、霉菌、革兰氏阴性细菌、革兰氏阳性细菌和其他系统发育微生物类别的存在或不存在的方法(不到2小时)，而不考虑菌株或物种。目前的快速方法依赖于孵育和聚合酶链式反应(PCR)进行鉴定。拟议的同质系统发育-等离子分析是基于等离子和比色机制的组合(通过聚集金属纳米颗粒产生颜色)，以及识别和定位微生物表面特定的系统发育实体，这些实体特定于某一类微生物，可以被激活以与等离子纳米粒子相互作用。这种相互作用导致微生物周围迅速形成纳米颗粒单分子层，导致样品的颜色迅速从红色变为深蓝色，肉眼可见。因此，拟议的分析技术有望降低成本，分析和决策所需的时间将在不到两个小时内变得可行。除了项目的应用方面，拟议的研究还将探索微生物表面实体，特别是含有二硫键的蛋白质，并阐明它们在分子识别反应和微生物细胞稳定性中的重要性、分布和作用。这项研究的主要直接影响是加强食品和环境诊断实验室的能力，方法是在食品工厂和环境场所进行快速微生物筛查，以便及时实施预防或治疗对策。该项目建议与行业合作伙伴建立合作，这将有助于填补学术研究与开发造福社会的商业产品之间的空白。拟议的研究计划将向研究生、本科生和博士后介绍跨学科研究，并教育他们如何通过应用不同的科学和工程领域来解决问题，如纳米技术、化学、生物技术和食品工程。这项研究的结果将通过会议、同行评议的出版物、潜在的专利和新闻文章广泛传播，以告知公众。

PI: Abbas, Abdennour Proposal Number: 1605191A new approach for a rapid identification and quantification of microbial content and type in food and environmental samples will be investigated. If successful, the results could address current need in food safety and food spoilage detection.A new approach for rapid identification and quantification of the microbial content and type in food and environmental samples, will be investigated. Rapid screening (less than 2 hours) for the presence or absence of yeasts, molds, gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria and other phylogenetic microbial classes regardless of the strain or species will be developed. Current rapid methods rely on incubation followed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for identification. The proposed homogeneous phylogenetic-plasmonic assays are based on the combination of plasmonic and colorimetry mechanisms (generation of color by the aggregation of metal nanoparticles), and the identification and targeting of specific phylogenetic entities on the microbial surface, which are specific to a certain class of microorganisms, and can be activated to interact with plasmonic nanoparticles. Such an interaction results in a rapid formation of a nanoparticle monolayer surrounding the microorganism, leading to rapid color change of the sample from red to dark-blue, visible to the naked eye. As a result, the proposed assay technology is expected to reduce cost and time needed for analysis and decision making would become feasible in less than two hours. Beyond the applied aspects of the project, the proposed research will explore microbial surface entities, particularly disulfide bridge-containing proteins, and shed light on their importance, distribution and role in molecular recognition reactions and stability of microbial cells. The main direct impact of this research is to enhance the capabilities of food and environmental diagnostic laboratories by enabling rapid microbial screening in food plants and environmental sites, allowing timely implementation of a preventive or curative response. The project proposes to build collaboration with industrial partners, which will help fill the gap between academic research and the development of commercial products that benefit society. The proposed research program will introduce graduate, undergraduate students, and post-docs to transdisciplinary research and educate them on how to solve problems by applying different fields of science and engineering, such as nanotechnology, chemistry, biotechnology and food engineering. The results of this research will be broadly disseminated through conferences, peer-reviewed publications, potential patents and news articles to inform the general public.