Development of paper-based immunoassays to detect food chemical hazards

快速、经济、准确的食品化学危害检测是提高加拿大生物技术产业食品安全和经济效益的重要手段。酶联免疫吸附法（ELISA）和免疫层析试纸法是目前广泛应用于食品化学危害检测的两种具有代表性的免疫检测方法。然而，传统的ELISA需要大量的分析物和试剂，并且孵育和阻断步骤所需的时间很长。此外，免疫层析试纸条制作复杂，单次检测价格高。在这个NSERC CRD项目中，我们建议开发低成本的基于纸张的免疫测定方法来提高食品化学危害的检测。光刻和蜡网印刷作为纸样的两种代表性技术，将应用于纸样上的微区制造，分别用于竞争性和夹心型ELISA检测，以检测选择性兽药残留和过敏原。此外，喷墨打印技术将被应用于制造微流控纸基免疫层析条，用于“一步”检测上述食品化学危害。与传统的免疫分析方法相比，开发的基于纸的食品化学危害检测方法具有几个主要优点。它们更快速，高通量，只需要少量的样品，试剂和简单的设备。这项技术的可用性将为加拿大制造商在下一代免疫测定的开发中提供前所未有的洞察力和优势。持续的信息证明先进免疫测定的性能质量将确保加拿大农业食品诊断产品在世界市场上的首要地位。此外，图案纸领域的知识发展以及微流体“芯片实验室”技术代表了分析化学领域在农业、食品和生物技术工业中的应用的根本重要性的进步。

Rapid, cost-effective, and accurate detection of food chemical hazards can offer an important means to improve food safety and economic benefit of biotechnology industry in Canada. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunochromatographic strip assay are two representative immunoassays that have been widely applied for the detection of food chemical hazards. However, conventional ELISA requires large volumes of analytes and reagents, and the time required for incubation and blocking steps are long. Further, the fabrication of immunochromatographic strip is complicated and the price of a single test is high. In this NSERC CRD project, we propose to develop low-cost paper-based immunoassays to improve the detection of food chemical hazards. As two representative techniques to pattern paper, photolithography and wax screen printing will be applied to fabricate microzone on paper for the development of both competitive and sandwich ELISA assays to detect selective veterinary drug residues and allergens, respectively. In addition, inkjet printing technique will be applied to fabricate microfluidic paper-based immunochromatographic strips for the detection of the aforementioned food chemical hazards in a "one-step" procedure. The developed paper-based immunoassays for the detection of food chemical hazards offer a few major advantages over the conventional immunoassays. They are more rapid, high-throughput, and only require small amount of samples, reagents, and simple equipment. The availability of this technology will provide Canadian manufactures with unprecedented insight and advantages in the development of the next-generation immunoassays. Continuous information certifying the performance quality of advanced immunoassays will secure the premier position of Canadian agri-food diagnostic products in the world marketplace. Moreover, the knowledge developed in the areas of patterned paper along with microfluidic "lab-on-a-chip" technique represent an advance of fundamental importance to the field of analytical chemistry that applied in agricultural, food, and biotechnology industry.