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Detection of foodborne pathogenic bacteria using microfluidic devices

Dr. Xudong Cao

Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa

January 21, 2021 15:30 - 16:30

This is an online event. The details on how to join the event will be available once you register.

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abstract

Identification and quantification of foodborne pathogens are becoming increasingly important to public health and food safety since the majority of foodborne illnesses and deaths are caused by pathogenic bacteria. Conventional methods for foodborne pathogen detection are time-consuming and laborious due to the requirement of a series of processes including cell enrichment, isolation and morphological identification. Therefore, the demand for rapid, sensitive, inexpensive and convenient approaches to detect foodborne pathogenic bacteria has emerged in recent years. Among those new approaches, microfluidic chip-based detection has generated growing interests because of their miniaturized size, improved sensitivity and reduced detection time. To this end, our research group have been working on strategies to enhance detection signals using aptamers to effectively capture detection targets and subsequently enhance detections by rolling circle amplifications (RCA). In this seminar, I will talk about our recent efforts to surface modify microfluidic channels in order to improve target capturing efficiencies and discuss our approaches to intensify signals for sensitive detections.

biography

Xudong Cao received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering in 2001 from University of Toronto (Toronto, ON). Subsequently, he received his postdoctoral training at Harvard University (Boston, MA) and Brown University (Providence, RI) before he joined the University of Ottawa (Ottawa, ON) as a faculty member in 2005. His current research interests are polymeric material development for tissue engineering, microfabrications and pathogen detections.