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M. R. LADISCH, Dept. of Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Purdue Univ., Lab. of Renewable Resources Engineering, 500 Central Dr., West Lafayette, IN 47907-2022 Nanoscience is the fabrication, study, and modeling of principles of devices and structures for which at least one dimension is several 100 nanometers or smaller. Nanotechnology will enable devices that are compact, portable, conserve power, integrate sensing, and carry out complex functions that are currently relegated to scientific laboratories. Some types of devices, particularly those of interest to the food industry and agriculture, will integrate biotechnology with silicon or plastic surfaces to form biosensing systems. The resulting biochips will greatly enhance speed and ease of detection and study of pathogens, biomarkers generated in response to environmental stress, and other biological conditions. Time to result will be measured in hours or less. This presentation will illustrate how very small, intelligent, sensing devices in the field, processing facility, or food manufacturing plant might catalyze changes in the practice of agriculture, food science, and food technology. The cost of achieving such monitoring, particularly considering the scale and geographic distribution of the agricultural enterprise, is a major consideration. This is where micro-fabrication techniques and nanotechnology become important. Nanotechnology will make it possible to miniaturize devices that perform the functions similar to instruments on a laboratory bench of equipment, and enable the components of such micro-devices to be self-assembled in an area measured in microns. Vanishingly small amounts of expensive reagents or biological molecules costing pennies will be sufficient for carrying out analysis now done in 1 to 10 mL volumes of reagents that cost hundreds of dollars per gram. The benefits of combining biotechnology, nanotechnology, and food science will be presented in the context of research in food safety engineering and biosecurity.
Session 45, Nanoscale science, engineering and technology for food safety and quality
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