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<ol> <li>Investigate alternatives to antigen-antibody binding: [a] binding by engineered phages attached to sensor surfaces; [b] binding by receptors stripped from phages and attached to sensor surfaces; and [c] antigen-antibody binding with purified antibodies.
<li>Investigate bacterial sensing platforms that may be easily miniaturized for incorporation with RFID circuitry on a chip.</ol>
The following devices will be investigated: <ol>
<li>piezoelectric driven and measured microcantilever beams; <li>piezoresistive measured microcantilever beams;
<li>shear horizontal acoustic wave devices; and
<li>other inexpensive, miniaturizable sensor devices. </ol>
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Task A: Binding Mechanisms: [A1] Phage and Antibody based sensors for Anthrax, [A2] Phage and Antibody based sensors for Salmonella typhimurium, [A3] Development of new Phages and Antibodies. Task B: Miniaturized Sensor Platforms: [B1] Piezoresistive microcantilever beams, [B2] Magnetostrictive particles.
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Food safety is a national priority which affects every man, woman and child. A crucial part of a prevention strategy to lower the high incidence of food borne illness is to employ methods that can rapidly detect the presence of toxins and pathogenic bacteria in food products. This research project is focused on the development of a hand-held sensor for the detection of food borne bacteria such as Salmonella typhimurium and Bacillus Anthracis Sterne Strain spores. Bacillus Anthracis Sterne Strain spores are a potential terrorism agent that may be spread rapidly throughout the food chain. Our consortium will develop methods of detecting spores within 100 seconds at a detection limit of a few thousands of cells per ml of liquid.