February 3, 2016 | SharkAdmin [image 1]At night, Dr. John Bruno can be found teaching microbiology at Northwest Vista College. During the day, he's the vice president and chief technology officer at Pronucleotein Biotechnologies, LLC. He's also an award-winning scientist who recently was a runner up for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Food Safety Challenge. The second-place ranking snagged him and his team $100,000 in prize money. According to the FDA, the winning submission, which was announced last summer, “features a portable device for rapid pathogen screening using DNA aptamer-magnetic bead sandwich assays. It promises a total assay processing and analysis time of about 30 minutes.” [image 2]Dr. Bruno headed the team and was joined by James Byron, CEO of Xgenex. During the Field Accelerator, the Pronucleotein, Inc. team focused on seeing how they could ease the burden of FDA inspectors at ports through rapid screening of suspect foods. Read the FDA article here. The challenge, the FDA says, represents a new approach to bringing cutting-edge science into the FDA which can make a positive impact on the safety of America’s food supply.
