Optical sensing platform for real-time detection of zoonotic pathogens

大约60%的感染人类的病原体与非人类脊椎动物(即人畜共患病)共享，正如当前的COVID大流行所表明的那样，人类绝大多数新出现的传染病(EID)起源于人畜共患病。尽管宰牲节往往成为头条新闻，但地方性人畜共患病可能是全球人类健康和生计的最大负担，不仅在低收入和中等收入国家，在英国也是如此，例如，在英国，人畜共患弯曲杆菌病是最常见的胃肠道感染。人畜共患疾病暴发的监测和调查往往因为无法在活体宿主、肉类或其他食品的加工和零售过程中进行实时诊断而受到阻碍。这项建议将通过开发一种基于功能化光纤传感平台的新型变革性技术来解决无法进行实时诊断的问题，作为在适当组织中识别人畜共患病病原体的一种手段，所有这些都可以扩展到常规使用。光纤传感器的通用性很强，它有人头发那么宽，可以很容易地集成到针头上，方便、快速和低成本地在现场使用。通过在光纤上涂上一种敏感材料，从光纤一端传输到另一端的光将受到存在的病原体数量的影响。改变纤维上的涂层可以检测到不同的病原体。拟议的传感平台将对全球科学、健康和福祉景观产生重大积极影响。工业和医疗保健组织将成为弯曲杆菌病和柯克斯氏菌病检测的直接受益者，目前这种检测既缓慢又昂贵，在英国推广这项技术将使英国食品行业在国际上获得巨大的贸易优势。将这项技术应用于其他疾病的可能性将导致更大的影响。

Around 60% of all pathogens infecting humans are shared with non-human vertebrates (i.e. are zoonoses) and, as exemplified by the current COVID pandemic, the vast majority of new and emerging infectious diseases (EID) of humans are zoonotic in origin. Although EID tend to grab the headlines, endemic zoonoses are probably the greatest burden on human health and livelihoods globally, not just in low and middle-income countries but also in the UK, where, for example, zoonotic campylobacteriosis is the most common gastrointestinal infection. Surveillance and investigation of outbreaks of zoonotic disease are often hampered by the inability to undertake real-time diagnostics either in the living host, in meat or other food products during processing and retail.This proposal will address the issue of inability to undertake real-time diagnostics by developing a novel, transformative technology based on functionalised optical fibre sensing platform, as a means of identifying zoonotic pathogens in appropriate tissues, all of which could be scalable to routine use. The optical fibre sensor is highly versatile, it is the width of a human hair and can be easily incorporated into a needle probe for easy, rapid and low cost use in the field. By coating the optical fibre with a sensitive material, the light transmitted from one end of the fibre to the other will be affected by the amount of pathogen present. Changing the coating on the fibre enables different pathogens to be detected.The proposed sensing platform will have a significant positive impact on global scientific, and health and well-being landscapes. Industries and healthcare organisations will be the immediate beneficiaries of campylobacteriosis and coxiellosis testing, which is currently both slow and expensive, and rolling out this technology in the UK would give UK food industries a huge trade advantage internationally. The potential to adapt the technology to other diseases will lead to even greater impact.