Engineering Design Software for Military Incinerators

An ultra-sensitive optical biosensing platform will be constructed for the rapid detection and identification of single microbes. The sensing platform is based on a novel self-compensating optical transducer design immune to thermal and mechanicalperturbations, as demonstrated in Phase I. The enhanced sensitivity of the device will be directed initially towards the unlabelled detection and identification of the foodborne pathogens at a level of 1 CFU/ml in less than 30 minutes without enrichmentssteps.The Phase II effort consists of the further development of the optical transducer, the incorporation of a microfluidic transport system, and the development of a general surface attachment chemistry and analyte immobilization. Once constructed, anin-depth testing program will be conducted to characterize the instrument's performance for detecting pathogenic E.coli 0157:H7 and S.aureus in food substances. A unique feature of the platform provides for the simultaneous detection and identification ofboth pathogenic S.aureus cell populations and its toxin byproduct.