Rapid detection of Salmonella in fresh produce using a paper-based microfluidic device based on recombinase polymerase amplification and lateral flow immunoassay

Salmonella is one of the most common causes of foodborne illnesses and 50% of its recent outbreaks are associated with fresh produce. To protect the safety of fresh produce, rapid, cost-effective and easy-to-use detection methods are necessary for government laboratories and food industry to frequently monitor Salmonella level. The gold standard bacteriological culturing and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods are generally time-consuming, labor-intensive, and complicated. To avoid these drawbacks, a recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) method amplifying DNA at a constant low temperature (i.e. 37°C) with a high sensitivity will be developed. To further simplify the analysis, a novel paper-based microfluidics device incorporating DNA extraction, DNA amplification and results visualization will be developed. With this paper-based microfluidic RPA device, the overall detection time of Salmonella can be <30 min and the cost of each test can be ~$1 CAD. Requiring no sophisticated instruments, this device can be used for in-field Salmonella detection.

Faculty Supervisor:

Xiaonan Lu

Student:

Yunxuan Chen;Lixue Liu

Partner:

NTBIO Diagnostics

Discipline:

Food science

Sector:

University:

University of British Columbia

Program: