SBIR-STTR Award

1. This project will focus on detecting live Salmonella organisms in industry-relevant large sample volumes faster, at lower cost, and with comparable accuracy to existing methods. Salmonella is the most common cause of foodborne illness. The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that Salmonella causes 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 deaths per year. Many of these cases could be prevented with improved detection. The primary roadblock to improved detection is the lack of in-situ, high-throughput detection technologies. 2. The proposed novel sensor will combined existing technologies magnetic detection, surface modified magnetic particles and microfluidics. 3. Successful demonstration and commercialization of the proposed sensor would dramatically improve food safety, reducing foodborne illness and death by providing faster and easier in-situ detection.

This Phase II Small Business Innovation Research proposal responds to food safety market needs by developing a high-throughput pathogen detector that will reduce the potential for disease outbreaks and costly food recalls. The device developed in this program addresses a broad sector of food producing markets. This project will focus on detecting live Salmonella organisms in industry-relevant large sample volumes faster, and with significantly higher sensitivity than state-of-the-art methods. The detection method uses DNA and RNA aptamers as biochemical "hooks" between Salmonella and magnetic nanoparticles. The magnetic nanoparticles are then detected by a novel tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) lab-on-a-chip sensor. The key innovation is a unique microfluidics architecture that localizes Salmonella and bound magnetic nanoparticles to the location on the TMR sensor with the highest sensitivity while dramatically increasing throughput. NVE Corporation has assembled a team of experts from academia and industry for microfluidics design and fabrication, aptamer and magnetic nanoparticle creation, and magnetic TMR sensor production, yielding a highly specific and integrated detection solution. A feasibility prototype was successfully tested in the Phase I program. The goal of the Phase II is the construction of a high-throughput bench-top system with faster, higher-sensitivity detection of Salmonella than otherwise possible.This file MUST be converted to PDF prior to attachment in the electronic application package