Rapid increase of antibiotic resistant bacterial infections is a major public health threat. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing concern not only in
the medical field but also in the food industry, as it compromises the quality and safety of the food supply chain.
AgFoSec aims to address the problem of AMR and pathogen proliferation affecting the agriculture and food security by developing an innovative
modular point-of-care (PoC) microfluidic diagnostic platform, combining biosensing and advanced CRISPR/Cas12a (CC12a) with nucleic acid
amplification methods e.g. polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The innovative PoC system will serve for rapid, highly sensitive identification of antibiotic
resistance genes (ARG) and bacterial pathogens across selected agricultural and animal-based food samples.
It will utilize a miniaturized microfluidic lab-on-a-chip format, incorporating specialized pathogen concentration chambers to enhance detection
sensitivity comparing to already existing analogous. Mechanical grinding and filtration of test samples will be followed by rapid on-chip bacterial lysis
and PCR amplification processes, which will further increase the speed and reliability of the diagnostics. The detection will be simultaneously achieved
through two complementary methods: ultra-sensitive DNA-based electrochemical detection using aptamer-based silicon nanowires and graphene fieldeffect transistors (SiNWs/G-FET) gold nanoelectrodes/carbon nanotubes, and fluorescence-based CRISPR-Cas12a detection within specifically
engineered parallel reaction chambers. The proposed approach will significantly improve testing throughput and specificity, providing rapid, accurate,
and highly sensitive measurements suitable for both clinical diagnostics and monitoring of food and agricultural products and contributing in this way to
the improvement of the food safety.
