9814412 Chin This research is a short-term feasibility study to evaluate the use of an acoustic wave sensor for the determination of pathogens in food, and potentially, many other applications. A quartz crystal microbalance will be coated with antibodies specific for a known food pathogen, e.g., Salmonella typhimurium, and the changing frequency of the crystal due to the weight of the adhered pathogen cells will signal the presence of problem microbes. Ultimately, a small microchip containing several pathogen and/or chemical sensors might be inexpensive enough to include in the food packaging and used to monitor the product quality from the processing plant to the point of sale. ***
