Development of a Far-Forward Food- and Water-borne Pathogen Detection System for use in Austere Environments

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assays are increasingly applied for detection of a range of pathogens in human samples, environmental samples and food samples. Despite rapid research progress in utilizing LAMP for identification and detection of pathogens, user-friendly point-of-care platforms to detect common foodborne pathogens such as STEC Escherichia coli O157:H7 EDL933, Norovirus, and Giardia intestinalis are yet to be developed. Consequently, there is a pressing need for sample-to-answer platforms capable of processing various water and food samples (such as strawberries, spinach, ground beef and water) and delivering genomic ID in a low resource setting. This Phase II project aims to develop a rapid (2 hour), sensitive, low-cost, easy-to-use, and portable platform for point-of-care identification in 4 sample types. The proposed platform, FieldPath ID, comprises of a fluidic cartridge designed to process food and water, coupled with shelf-stable LAMP assay technology for comprehensive pathogen identification. Building upon the Phase I proof-of-concept, which demonstrated successful water sample preparation and quantification of the three key pathogens, our Phase II efforts will focus on integrating sample-to-answer components that enable binary colorimetric readouts from food matrices. A critical aspect of our work involves benchmarking our FieldPath ID platform against gold standard analysis techniques. Successful completion of Phase II objectives will yield an advanced prototype of the first foodborne and waterborne pathogen detection powerless device. Subsequent Phase III efforts will concentrate on prototype manufacturing and progressing toward FDA approval, ultimately paving the way for transformative food and water safety applications of this technology.