Simple and Sensitive Immunodetection of Animal-Derived Adulterants in Foods Using Catalytic Nanoparticles

The over-arching goal of this project is to develop a simple and sensitive lateral flow assay (or test strip) based on catalytically active nanoparticles for the detection of animal-derived adulterants in food products. This goal will be addressed through the following three objectives: 1. Engineering the catalytic nanoparticles made of noble metals that possess optimized enzyme-like activities. The enzyme-like activities enable the nanoparticles to generate sensitive detection signal by catalyzing chromogenic substrates. 2. Establishing the catalytic nanoparticles-based test strip, aiming a substantial improvement (ideally two orders of magnitude) in detection sensitivity relative to conventional gold nanoparticles-based test strip. 3. Applying the catalytic nanoparticles-based test strip to detection of animal-derived adulterants in food products.