IMPROVED ANALYTICAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR DETECTION OF FOODBORNE TOXINS AND THEIR METABOLITES

The goals of this project are to enhance food safety through the development of tools to more effectively monitor for natural toxins, and to reduce exposure to such toxins. The first goal will be addressed by improving methods for toxin detection, in particular methods to detect multiple toxins and their metabolites simultaneously. To meet this goal requires the development of materials with performance characteristics capable of being used in multiplexed assays and materials that can detect toxins that are currently poorly detected (such as the masked mycotoxins). Development of these materials is integrated with a second goal, the removal of toxins from foods, thereby reducing exposure. To meet these goals, we have four objectives. Objective 1. Improve detection of foodborne toxins through development of novel technologies based upon biosensor platforms and new component materials. Sub-objective 1.1. Development and evaluation of multiplexed assay platforms. Sub-objective 1. 2. Development and evaluation of materials that can function in multiplexed assays. Objective 2. Improve detection of foodborne toxins through development of direct detection technologies based upon novel massspectrometric platforms. Sub-objective 2.1. Develop novel ambient ionization mass spectrometric techniques for detecting single or closely related groups of foodborne toxins. Sub-objective 2.2. Expand techniques such that they can detect multiple toxins simultaneously (multiplexed assays). Objective 3. Improve the ability to detect and measure ⿿masked� mycotoxins and biomarkers of mycotoxin exposure in commodities and foods. Sub-objective 3.1. Application of novel mass spectrometric tools to detect masked toxins. Sub-objective 3.2. Development of novel bio-based materials for masked mycotoxin detection. Objective 4. Improve toxin detection methods and reduce exposure through the development and application of synthetic materials. Sub-objective 4.1. Develop synthetic receptor materials using computational methods and materials science/synthetic strategies. Sub-objective 4.2. Characterize and apply synthetic receptor materials in methods to reduce exposure to toxins.