The development of a microcytometer for rapid detection and identification of foodborne pathogens

高通量检测和鉴定食源性致病菌是食品安全监测中细菌快速检测的重要手段。低成本、强大、可靠和高通量的细菌检测细胞仪对于食品安全当局快速识别和应对食源性疾病爆发和食品供应链上的生物恐怖袭击等事件尤为重要。为此，我们提出了一种基于微流控的微芯片流式细胞仪（即microcytometer），一种快速鉴定和检测病原菌的诊断设备。拟议的微细胞仪将现时由非现场食物安全微生物学实验室行程的所有主要食物病原体检测功能，整合到低成本和一次性信用卡大小的微细胞仪芯片中。这种微细胞仪是建立在微流体技术上的，首先将食物样品与荧光标记的抗体反应，然后当它们以单列形式流过工程微流体通道时检测标记的细胞。虽然最初的反应将允许荧光标记的抗体识别并结合到食品样品中的目标致病菌，具有高度特异性，但后者将使用激光技术自动检测标记的细胞。

High-throughput detection and identification of foodborne pathogens are in increasing demand for rapidbacteria detections in food safety monitoring. A low-cost, robust, reliable and high-throughput bacteriadetection cytometry is especially important for food safety authorities to quickly identify and respond to eventssuch as foodborne disease outbreaks and bioterrorist attacks on our food supply chains. To this end, we proposea microfluidic-based microchip flow cytometer (i.e. microcytometer), a diagnostic device for rapid pathogenicbacteria identification and detection. The proposed microcytometry integrates all major food pathogendetecting functions, which are currently handled in off-site food safety microbiology laboratories, into alow-cost and disposable credit card-sized microcytometry chip. This microcytometer is built upon microfluidictechnologies to first react food samples with fluorescently-labeled antibodies, and subsequently detect thelabeled cells when they flow in single file through engineered microfluidic channels. While the initial reactionwill allow the fluorescently-labeled antibodies to recognize and bind to the targeted pathogenic bacteria in thefood sample with high specificity, the latter will enable automatic detection of the labeled cells using lasertechnology.