Juhong Chen, an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Riverside, has received a $590,000 award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop a color-based nanosensor for detecting foodborne pathogens.
The four-year project, which begins in April 2026, is titled “A simple signal-on colorimetric nanosensor using CRISPR-Cas14 and G4 DNAzyme-linked magnetic nanoparticles to detect foodborne pathogens.” The project is led by Chen and includes contributions from graduate students and postdoctoral researchers Yawen He, Xue Zhao, Tom Kasputis, and Wenyang Shi.
Chen’s research program focuses on developing bioengineering and biosensing approaches for food safety, environmental monitoring, and clinical diagnostics, with a particular interest in CRISPR-Cas protein engineering. The new USDA-funded project builds on that work by applying molecular detection tools to a major food-safety challenge.
Foodborne illness remains a significant public health and economic burden in the United States. According to the project summary, foodborne illness causes more than 45 million illnesses and more than 3,000 deaths annually, along with more than $55 billion in economic losses each year.
Although laboratory testing can identify pathogens with precision, many food-safety settings still need tools that are faster, easier to use, and sensitive enough to detect contamination before products move through the supply chain.
The research aims to make foodborne pathogen detection easier, more sensitive, and more specific, particularly in settings where traditional laboratory testing may not be practical. The CRISPR-based biosensor is designed to produce a visible color change when a target pathogen is detected, offering a potential path toward more accessible testing of food samples.
Chen’s team plans to combine CRISPR-Cas14, a CRISPR-associated protein system that can help identify specific genetic material, with G4 DNAzyme-linked magnetic nanoparticles, which are designed to support the sensor’s color-based signal.
“Our developed nanosensor can prevent the spread of foodborne pathogens in the food supply chain and reduce foodborne outbreaks and food recalls,” Chen said.
The long-term goal is to develop nanosensors that can be adopted for the routine detection of foodborne pathogens from various food samples. If successful, the work could support faster identification of contamination and contribute to broader efforts to improve food safety.