A research team from YU is receiving attention from the academic circles by developing a new technology that can diagnose in just a few hours food poisoning bacteria that can result in fatal illnesses by contaminating food for infants and young children.

 This research was on diagnosing ‘Cronobacter sakazakii), which is a colon bacteria that can result in severe diseases such as meningitis or even death to infants who have weak immune systems by contaminating food or powdered milk for infants. In 2011, a 10-day old died after eating powdered milk in the United States in 2011. Once it was revealed that the child was infected with Cronobacter sakazakii, this pathogenic food poisoning bacteria became a big issue as the cause of infection.

 The World Health Organization (WHO) designated various Cronobacter bacteria including Cronobacter sakazakii as ‘A-grade pathogens’, which have the highest level of danger, and provides strict safety management guidelines. Therefore, more attention is being placed on these research results.

 The existing Cronobacter sakazakii diagnosis method has limitations such as requiring prolong periods (5 to 7 days), being labor intensive, and needing expensive analysis devices. However, the newly developed diagnosis technology makes it possible to analyze it in a short period of time with rather inexpensive equipment. The core technology of this study is that the target bacteria in contaminated food is separated using a magnet, and by adding fluorescent materials on the bacteria to obtain signals, it considerably improves the selectiveness, peculiarity, and sensitivity of analysis.

 Lee Gi-baek (27) who graduated from the YU Graduate School of Food Science and Food Service Industry in February of this year and Professor Shruti Shukla (31) participated in this study as co-primary authors. The results of the study was published in the most recent internet version of <Biosensors & Biolectronics> (Impact factor (IF) 6.409), which is the most authoritative academic journal in the world for the electric chemistry sector, and it is scheduled to also be published in the journal in 2016.

 School of Food Science and Food Service Professor Kim Myung-hee who participated in this study as a correspondence author said, “With this newly developed system, even a tiny amount of bacteria can be analyzed from as quickly as 2 hours and 30 minutes and no longer than 8 hours,” while adding, “It has the advantage that it can be applied in a broad range for prompt monitoring of various food poisoning bacteria aside from Cronobacter.”

 This study was carried out as part of the basic research project with the support of the National Research Foundation, and the research team is planning to carry out follow-up research on the automation of the procedures related to food poisoning diagnosis. Professor Kim Myung-hee, who participated as the correspondence author, won a Presidential Citation in July for her contributions in constructing basic data for adding high value to Korean forest resources, improving the functions and safety of traditional fermented foods, and the construction of a safety management basis for agricultural food products.