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Food Industry needs a rapid, sensitive, selective and reliable method for the detection of toxins to ensure food safety. The objective of this research was to introduce a novel immunobiosensor technology to use in a simple hand-held type device to detect foodborne toxins. The detection of toxins by direct sensing of the specific binding reaction of the toxin (antigen) with its specific partner (antibody) is a rapid and low cost method.
This is a collaborative research effort between IIT,UIC and FDA/NCFST. The NCFST project was renewed for three years to focus on applications of the sensor in food. Funding was received from the Whitaker Foundation for a period of three years. The immediate goal of the Whitaker program was to develop an understanding of the sensing mechanism of ultrathin platinum film conductimetric immunobiosensors. Stable Pt film sensors were fabricated on a Ti sublayer by sputtering onto a silica substrate.Surface cleaning and annealing of the wafers before and after deposition of the ultra thin Pt film resulted in films that had excellent adhesion for up to 24 hours in PBS solution. Initial measurements indicated the impedance responded specifically to SEB antigen in the concentration range of 0.4 to 10 ng/mL. The sensitivity of each sensor varied considerably.Monofunctional silane GOP showed a more reproducible response. Five publications resulted from this research.