New E. coli detection technology created

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Sept. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've developed a more rapid and less expensive method of detecting and capturing food-borne, illness-causing bacteria.

The Purdue University Research Park company -- Intelliphage Inc. -- said the new technology is based on discoveries by a research group led by Associate Professor Bruce Applegate. The company was founded by Applegate and researcher Lynda Perry.

The new detection method involves modifying a virus that can infect a specific E. coli bacterium that causes illness in people and is associated with eating contaminated beef or vegetables and drinking unpasteurized milk or contaminated water.

Applegate said the non-pathogenic lab strain of E. coli will identify the bacterium's presence in food by turning red or becoming luminescent, allowing food companies to detect contaminated food before it reaches the consumer.

He said he is now working to include salmonella, listeria, staph and Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the suite of bacteria his technology can detect.