PARTNERSHIP: DEVELOPMENT OF A NANOPARTICLE-ENABLED ENRICHMENT AND DNA-BIOSENSING FOR ONSITE MONITORING OF MULTIPLE FOODBORNE PATHOGENS IN LARGE SAMPLES

Poultry is one of the most consumed animal-based protein in the U.S. Unfortunately, poultry and poultry products are considered as major vehicles of Salmonella and Campylobacter infection in humans. Salmonella and Campylobacter are the top two leading causes of bacterial foodborne diarrheal illnesses in the U.S. causing close to a million cases of illnesses by each organism every year. According to a USDA Economic Research Service report in 2018, the economic burden was $4 billion due to Salmonella (non-typhoidal) infection and $2 billion due to Campylobacter infection. Currently, there is a technology gap for the simultaneous extraction, concentration, purification, and detection of multiple pathogens in field settings, close to the contamination site. Thus, the goal of this proposal is to rapidly monitor the temporal dynamics of Salmonella and Campylobacter infection in poultry farms and slaughter facilities using a nanoparticle-based biosensor with capabilities for rapid and simultaneous enrichment, detection, and reporting of multiple agents. The specific objectives are: (1) optimize the Site-enriched-Multi-Array-Reporting Biosensing Technology (SMART) for rapid detection of Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. in large samples; (2) optimize a cellphone-based data capture, analysis, and reporting of the biosensor signal output; and (3) validate the cellphone-enabled SMART biosensor for simultaneous detection of Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. in selected poultry farms and slaughter facilities.