Fighting Listeria and Other Food-Borne Illnesses With Nanobiotechnology (IMAGE)

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Fighting Listeria and Other Food-Borne Illnesses With Nanobiotechnology

Caption

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to kill deadly pathogenic bacteria in food handling and packaging. Using nature as their inspiration, the researchers successfully attached cell lytic enzymes to food-safe silica nanoparticles, and created a coating (seen up close in this scanning electron micrograph image) with the demonstrated ability to selectively kill listeria -- a dangerous foodborne bacteria that causes an estimated 500 deaths every year in the United States.

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Rensselaer/Dordick

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