PFI-TT: Rapid, portable antibody-based detection of meat species content in food samples

Award ID: 2140996

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project will be to enable practical in-situ detection of meat species content in food samples. Assessing meat content is important for compliance, customer demands regarding food purity, and religious beliefs forbidding the consumption of certain meats. The proposed technology consists of a simple and portable test usable outside a laboratory setting by users with little training. The proposed test will enable rapid, quantitative detection of small percentages of many types of meat in food. The assay uses changes in light reflection when relevant proteins bind to antibodies designed to recognize them. Because antibodies detect many types of molecules such as allergens, viral pathogens and neurotoxins, this technology can be extended to screening needs in food allergens, medical diagnostics, defense, and public safety. The proposed project will develop substrates functionalized with detection antibodies and a portable optical reader to interpret results. The operating principle is that chemical binding of small amounts of target molecules to antibodies immobilized on silicon substantially increases the reflectivity of the silicon substrate when probed in a specialized geometry. The project identifies practical approaches to immobilizing appropriate antibodies on the substrate so that they retain their function, develops simple protocols to extract proteins from meat samples, and makes a portable prototype that measures small changes in reflectivity when the substrate is exposed to those samples. Importantly, the project will develop a protocol that inhibits indiscriminate adhesion of molecules that are not of interest. In addition, the project will quantify the relationship between the increase in reflectivity and the tested meat species. The project will test the prototype reader, substrates and protocol to evaluate efficacy and simplicity. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Mara E. Schindelholz