Securing Our Food Supply — and Your Investment

In a globalized world where dangerous plant and animal diseases are moving around at the beat of expanding international trade, Ohio State University’s Center for Diagnostic Assays (CDA) is taking a stand.

CDA comprises a team of nationally and internationally recognized experts on both plant and animal diseases, working to develop diagnostic tools essential to the health of crops and livestock as well as to the safety of our food supply. Diagnostic assays for infectious pathogens are indispensable to veterinarians, commodity groups, biologics companies, state and local diagnostic facilities, producers and federal agencies.

CDA’s strengths lie in the existing diagnostic assays and the support of these assays by validation panels and libraries of strains in each Center investigator’s laboratory. Additionally, some of this intellectual property has been protected by invention disclosures and patents.

Our Objectives

• To provide an opportunity for the commercialization of existing technologies and intellectual property related to diagnostics by attracting new industries to Ohio.
• To validate and improve diagnostic reagents and assays currently in development, to explore the development of new molecular-based diagnostic assays, and to establish new collaborations between veterinary and plant scientists.
• To protect our diagnostic reagents and assays through invention disclosures and patents where appropriate.

What We Have to Offer

CDA researchers have already developed molecular-based diagnostic assays for several infectious agents, including Mycobacterium, prion proteins, E. coli 0157, bovine torovirus (BToV), infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) (Patent #6,114,112), very virulent IBDV (vv IBDV) (patent pending), as well as biological control agents Trichoderma hamatum 382 and DAPG-producing Pseudomonas fluorescens.

Diagnostic assays in development include those for Mollicutes (phytoplasma species), soybean rust pathogen, soybean root pathogens, Bacillus subtilis strains with plant disease biocontrol activity, Enterobacter sakazakii (which causes meningitis in humans), and monoclonal antibody-based BToV and vvIBDV assays.

Our Strategy

CDA capitalizes on the relationships our scientists have with the veterinary, crop and ornamental/landscape plant communities, commodity groups, private industry, and government.

In addition to research activities, several CDA team members have Ohio State University Extension appointments, and all the team members have direct communication with industry. Marketing and outreach goals are being met through the services of independent consultants as well as through collaborations with OSU Extension’s Community Development program, Ohio State’s Food and Agricultural Technology Commercialization and Economic Development Program (ATECH), and the university’s Office of Technology Licensing and Commercialization.

With the help of individuals in these support groups, CDA will aggressively pursue patent protection and commercialization of our diagnostic reagents and technologies.

An Example of Real-time Potential

One of the many exciting commercialization opportunities CDA has to offer is the first-of-its-kind validated real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay (patent pending) for the rapid detection vvIBDV, a highly contagious disease of poultry that is causing major losses to this multibillion-dollar industry worldwide and is threatening to invade the United States.

This test distinguishes vvIBDV strains from non-vvIBDV classic and variant strains, providing a unique effective tool for the effective monitoring and control of this devastating disease. In countries without the virus, this assay would represent a crucial first line of defense needed to prevent vvIBDV from entering domestic poultry operations.

Poultry is the fastest-growing component of global meat demand. The United States is the world’s largest poultry producer and the second-largest egg producer and exporter of poultry meat, with an annual farm value exceeding $20 billion. In Ohio alone, the poultry industry is worth more than $3 billion a year. Due to the ever-increasing worldwide trade of chicks and hatching eggs, there is a real and immediate concern that vvIBDV will continue to spread, causing dramatic losses on every continent, including North America and Australia. In 2004 alone, nearly 18 million day-old chicks and nine million poultry hatching eggs were imported into the United States.

CDA is looking forward to establishing partnerships to license its technology and exploring other exciting entrepreneurial collaborations.

Contact Information:
Dr. Daral Jackwood
Center for Diagnostic Assays
The Ohio State University
Edgington Hall
1680 Madison Avenue
Wooster, OH 44691

For more information, contact
Karen Germ
CDA Business Development
germ.4@osu.edu

Visit our Web site, http://oardc.osu.edu/cda/

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