SBIR-STTR Award

As we all know, bio-terrorism in America is a reality. However in addition to the Category A agents like anthrax, Yersinia pestis and smallpox, which are difficult to safely grow and disseminate, exist the Category B agents that could be used to infect our food or water supply. These organisms include bacterial pathogens, protozoa, and viruses. In addition to these natural pathogenic organisms they could also be genetically engineered to increase their virulence or to resist standard antibiotic treatments. Therefore new methods for rapid sensitive food and waterborne pathogen detection are greatly needed, especially if they can also be used to identify drug sensitivity within these organisms. Bio-terrorism using a food pathogen is not just a hypothetical threat to America. A religious cult in Dalles Oregon sickened at least 751 people by contaminating food in grocery stores and restaurants in the fall of 1984. The group simply grew cultures of the food pathogen Salmonella typhimurium that they obtained from their local scientific supply house and sprinkled the cultures on produce in the grocery stores and the restaurant salad bars. If the group had used a more deadly pathogen like Salmonella typhi that causes typhoid fever many people would certainly have died. The overall goal of this program is to develop an integrated isothermal DNA amplification and a probe array detection slide capable of rapidly identifying a variety of food and waterborne pathogens. All of the NIAID Biodefense Category B food and waterborne bacterial pathogens E. coli, Vibrio cholera, Shigella dysentery, Salmonella species, Listeria monocytogenes, Camphylobacter jejuni, and Yersinia enterocolitica will be detected in this program. A single integrated slide capable of isothermal amplifying and detecting all of these organisms in real-time in a closed sealed device is proposed. The program can also distinguish live organisms from dead organisms killed by the food or water sanitation process. Also, the test can be used to identify the antibiotic sensitivity of the pathogen to identify genetically altered organisms.

Thesaurus Terms:
bacterial food poisoning, biohazard detection, food contamination, food processing /preparation, nucleic acid amplification technique, nucleic acid probe, nucleic acid quantitation /detection, water supply Campylobacter, Escherichia coli, Listeria, Salmonella, Salmonella food poisoning, Shigella, Vibrio cholerae, Yersinia pestis, water sampling /testing bioterrorism /chemical warfare

As we all know, bio-terrorism in America is a reality. However in addition to the Category A agents like anthrax, Yersinia pestis and smallpox, which are difficult to safely grow and disseminate, exist the Category B agents that could be used to infect our food or water supply. These organisms include bacterial pathogens, protozoa, and viruses. In addition to these natural pathogenic organisms they could also be genetically engineered to increase their virulence or resist standard antibiotic treatments. Therefore new methods for rapid food and waterborne pathogen detection is greatly needed especially if it can also be used to identify drug sensitivity within these organisms. This program will develop such tests. In addition to bio-terrorism concerns, food-borne diseases cause 76-million illnesses, including 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths in the US each year. More than 200 known diseases are transmitted through food and drink. Traditional detection of food-borne pathogens has relied on microbiologic techniques. These standard culture methods recommended by the AOAC require between 5 to 7 days to complete. Meanwhile, the product is held for shipment, increasing storage costs and reducing the product shelf life. In the case of our water supply, Public Health Service warnings are released when problems are identified, usually after the product is already released for public consumption. Consequently, rapid methods for food and water pathogen detection are greatly needed to protect the public health. The overall goal of this program is to develop an integrated isothermal DNA amplification and detection system capable of rapidly identifying a variety of food and waterborne pathogens. All of the NIAID Biodefense Category B food and waterborne bacterial pathogens will be detected in this program. A single integrated system capable of isothermal amplifying and detecting all of these organisms in a closed device is proposed.

Thesaurus Terms:
bacterial food poisoning, biohazard detection, nucleic acid probe, nucleic acid quantitation /detection, polymerase chain reaction, technology /technique development Campylobacter, Escherichia coli, Listeria, Salmonella, Shigella, Vibrio, Yersinia, food processing /preparation, growth media, nucleic acid purification, water sampling /testing biotechnology, bioterrorism /chemical warfare, microorganism culture