APTAMER-ANTIBODY BASED IMMUNOASSAY FOR THE DETECTION OF CRUSTACEAN SHELLFISH ALLERGENS

The long-term goal of this project is to provide a convenient, reliable, and effective analytical tool for the enforcement of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in order to prevent intentional or unintentional cross-contamination of crustacean shellfish allergens in foods. We will achieve this goal through the integration of three major supporting objectives:(1) Purify and characterize four major crustacean shellfish allergensfrom shrimp and crab;(2) Develop and characterize monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and DNA aptamers specific to four major crustacean shellfish allergens; and(3) Develop and validate aptamer-antibody based sandwich immunoassays for the detection of crustacean shellfish allergens in foods.