PFI-TT: Strengthening Agriculture Through Better Disease Detection

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is the improvement in disease diagnostics. The proposed technology provides a process for the rapid development and optimization of diagnostic tests. The results will be available on a website for use by subscribers in laboratories anywhere in the world.

The proposed testing platform technology is entirely virtual and does not need shipping, thus saving significant time and costs. Once the proposed technology is verified, recognized, and in wide use, it will have the potential to be made portable for field, pen, or bedside testing. The proposed technology can test for multiple pathogens in one sample. The system works on plant, animal and human diseases.

This project will initially focus on the needs of the citrus industry. Citrus planting materials are shipped all around the world. However, before planting material can enter a country, it has to go through extensive testing to ensure that it isn’t carrying any citrus disease from some other part of the world.

The U.S. tests all citrus varieties for up to 30 different disease causing viroids, viruses, bacteria, and fungi. The testing and ‘curing’ of this valuable planting material can take years with available technologies. This technology platform enables researchers to test for all pathogens in a single sample, saving significant time and reducing costs.

The research objectives of this project are to develop diagnostic test probes for citrus pathogens of concern to the U.S. and test them in parallel with the currently used standard.

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.