Companies Aim to Develop a Salmonella Detection Product

PositiveID Corporation and its development partner Receptors LLC announce their plans to develop a product to capture salmonella for detection and diagnostics, and potentially other foodborne illnesses such as E. coli. PositiveID believes the Combinatorial Artificial Receptor Array (CARA) technology is able to optimize a faster, more efficient sample preparation procedure, which, in turn, translates to a more economical and accurate test and higher throughput for detecting salmonella and other bacteria.

The patented CARA platform is designed to be adaptable to a broad spectrum of applications in the medical, environmental and agricultural industries. Built on the foundation of its core CARA technology, Receptors' direct capture systems can provide more efficient capture of microbes for increased sanitation of sensitive environments, including food processing facilities.

A nationwide recall of eggs possibly contaminated with salmonella was initiated in mid-August. More than half a billion eggs have now been recalled. Many salmonella infections are due to ingestion of contaminated food. About 142,000 Americans are infected each year with salmonella enteritidis from chicken eggs. The shell of the egg may be contaminated by feces or environment, or its interior (yolk) may be contaminated from the shell or from an infected hen.

PositiveID and Receptors are currently working to develop an in vivo glucose-sensing microchip, the GlucoChip, for diabetics, and a point-of-care rapid virus detection system for influenza and other pandemic viruses. PositiveID has exclusively licensed Receptors' CARA platform for these applications.

Receptors' has demonstrated its CARA smart materials technology in a variety of sample processing applications, including the efficient capture of bacteria from urine samples for urinary tract infection diagnostics, facile capture of intact bacteria versus free DNA for PCR-based analysis of infectious agent antibiotic sensitivity, efficient capture of influenza virus as the basis for a flu strain diagnostic, as well as broad spectrum microbe capture including salmonella for both sample preparation and sanitation applications.