I-Corps: Tranlsation Potential of Airborne Pathogen Sensors for Agricultural Disease Monitoring and Prevention

This I-Corps project is based on the development of real-time sensors that can detect infectious pathogens directly from air. Infectious diseases carried by airborne droplets or particles threaten both human health and agricultural biosecurity. Farm animals, due to their close proximity, are often susceptible to airborne disease outbreaks. This technology can automatically detect airborne diseases in agricultural settings. The sensing system has the form factor of a smoke detector and can be deployed in virtually any indoor settings. Once a pathogen is detected, mitigation procedures can be implemented to significantly reduce, or eliminate, resulting losses. In addition, this technology may have application in human healthcare settings, such as infectious disease surveillance, pandemic preparedness, and biological agent detection. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of airborne pathogen sensing technology to be used in agricultural and other settings. The system employs a hybrid microfluidic circuit that first concentrates and deposits potentially infectious aerosols onto reaction well surfaces and then uses nucleic acid amplification to probe the deposited aerosols for target pathogens. The system has a self-sealing reaction well block that contains custom-fabricated reaction wells with lyophilized reagents that are automatically hydrated prior to the start of the reaction. To reduce the need for temperature cycling, the sensor uses loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). Resulting amplification in the presence of target pathogens has been shown to provide high sensitivity and selectivity, with a limit-of-detection (LOD) down to single copies per liter of air. In addition, the design represents the first sensor that can perform nucleic acid amplification directly from air. The sensor may be used to provide a pathogenic early warning system that allows users to implement mitigation protocols that may prevent disease outbreaks or significantly reduce their severity. 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.