This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will demonstrate feasibility by developing a novel sampling system to detect 103-4 cfu/g Salmonella typhimurium in spinach within 2 hours. Foodborne diseases resulting from Campylobacter, Escherichia, Listeria, Salmonella, Shigella and Vibrio species affect as many as 76 million persons in the United States each year, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and nearly 5,000 deaths. Unfortunately, current methods used to detect these pathogens rely on lengthy growth enrichment steps that take 1 to 4 days, negating effective prevention of contaminated food distribution and consumption. During the Phase II project, a prototype Foodborne Pathogen Analyzer will be developed to extract, detect, identify, and quantify the presence of the above listed pathogens in a variety of food matrices in 1 to 2 hours at the required sensitivity (e.g. 1-100 cfu/g).
The broader/commercial impacts of this research are 1) to detect pathogens in or on food in 1-2 hours, hence preventing the distribution and consumption of contaminated food, 2) to speed the process of identifying the source of an outbreak, helping minimize illnesses and deaths, and 3) to allow developing similar systems that can detect bioagents in support of the military and homeland security, and other infectious pathogens in support of medical diagnosis (e.g. detection of MRSA, HIV, TB).
The overall goal of this proposed project (through Phase III) is to develop a Foodborne Pathogen Analyzer that can extract, detect, identify, and quantify the presence of foodborne pathogens in 1 to 2 hours at the required sensitivity (e.g. 1-100 colony forming units per gram of food). The overall goal of Phase I was to demonstrate feasibility of the proposed analyzer by detecting 103-4 colony forming units of Salmonella typhimurium in 1 gram of spinach within 2 hours. To accomplish the above Phase I goal, methods were developed to selectively isolate pathogens from spinach and transfer them into a sensor substrate, which was designed to specifically capture a particular pathogen. The presence of a target pathogen was then determined based on the spectral signal measured with a Raman spectrometer. Finally, the success of Phase I was demonstrated by measuring as low as 10000 bacterial cells of Salmonella typhimurium in 1 mL of spinach juice in less than two hours. Broader Impacts The ability to detect low number of pathogens in or on food in 1-2 hours will allow preventing the distribution and consumption of contaminated food. The knowledge gained from this project can also be applied to develop similar methods that can detect biological warfare agents in support of the military and homeland security, and other infectious pathogens in support of medical diagnosis (e.g. detection of MRSA, HIV, TB).
