The UMD BioPark-based PathSensors, Inc. has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The award will fund the development of a multi-sample testing platform for rapid, facile identification of plant pathogens including the bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum and the widespread water mold Phytophthora. The new instrument will enhance the capabilities of the company’s CANARY® biosensors, enabling high throughput analysis of liquid and plant samples.
The award comes on the heels of a successful pilot program for screening plant imports at US Plant Inspection Stations. As part of an ongoing Material Transfer and Research Agreement with the USDA and MIT-Lincoln Laboratory, the originators of CANARY® technology, the PathSensors technology was used to analyze geranium cuttings, from countries not in the APHIS pre-clearance program, entering the US via Linden, NJ and Atlanta, GA for the select agent Ralstonia solanacearum. The bacterium, the most dangerous strain of which is endemic to Europe but has not reached the US, accounts for over $1 billion annually in economic losses to crops such as potatoes and tomatoes.