 E. coli Testing Technology to Market
Foods, drinking water, and other beverages must be free of microbial contamination from pathogens in order to protect human health. Total coliforms and Escherichia coli (E. coli) are routinely monitored microorganisms, which may indicate the presence of pathogens in food, drinking water, and beverages. Over the past 10 years, scientists have shown that it is possible to formulate a culture medium to simultaneously detect both total coliforms and E. coli in food or water samples. The media are based upon the specific enzyme activity of the target organisms on fluorescent or chromogenic indicators. The enzymes produced by the coliforms or E. coli hydrolyze and react with the enzyme substrates in the medium to form fluorescent and/or colored products. By combining two indicators into one media, it is possible to simultaneously detect the presence or absence of either total coliforms or E. coli or both. In 2000, the U.S. EPA obtained a patent on a membrane filter medium (MI Agar) that can be used to enumerate both total coliforms and E. coli or indicate the presence or absence of them. Testing with MI Agar can be applied to food or drinking water products, or applied to in-plant quality control testing. MI Agar is a unique combination of two enzyme substrates (a fluorogen and a chromogen), a selective base agar, and an antibiotic inhibitor in a membrane filter medium. Application of MI Agar is relatively simple. A liquid sample is passed through a membrane filter. The filter, which retains the bacteria present in the water sample, is placed on MI Agar, incubated, and then examined. Results are usually available in 16-24 hours, and some positives may be detected in as little as 9 hours. Licensees of the technology can capitalize on the technology’s already existing value. As an example, MI Agar is already approved for monitoring drinking water under the Total Coliform Rule and for source water under the Surface Water Treatment Rule. This significantly reduces the time to bring the product to market in the drinking water industry. In addition, MI Agar’s ability to provide qualitative and quantitative results is an advantage over simple presence/absence tests presently used in the food, drinking water, and beverage industries. During 2000, Battelle’s ETC2 facilitated both a non-exclusive license and a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) for S&S Biopath with the U.S. EPA. A subsidiary of Schleicher & Schuell, S&S Biopath is a scientific products company that offers a variety of inspection and safety products designed for home use, as well as the various industries that handle and prepare food and beverages, including bottled and fountain sodas, drinking water, wines, and beers. Additional licenses with other companies are expected to follow. Due to Battelle’s licensing facilitation, S&S Biopath is already offering the MI Agar product for sale to its customers. In addition, S&S Biopath is working to develop other forms of the MI Agar by embarking on a CRADA to work with the U.S. EPA researchers who invented MI Agar. Collaboration with the U.S. EPA will speed the new product development and the new products will allow S&S Biopath to bring new easier to use versions of the media to their customer base. EPA is very pleased with the results of Battelle’s ETC2 program. As Larry Fradkin, the Director of U.S. EPA’s Federal Technology Transfer Act Office, explains, “The License/CRADA combination is really a win/win deal for both U.S. EPA and S&S Biopath. U.S. EPA ensures that a new improved technology for protecting human health reaches the market in a timely fashion, and S&S Biopath expands and improves their product line while working with the expertise of the U.S. EPA to speed the process.” S&S Biopath is very pleased with the new product and the research opportunities made available to them through ETC2. “We’re very excited to be the first company selling MI Agar—ETC2 assistance to S&S Biopath during the licensing process helped to speed our release of the new product,” reports Joseph Small, president of S&S Biopath. “Our plans to develop other forms of the media should expand sales even further. It’s a great help to us to have U.S. EPA expert input as we develop these new forms.” Kris Brenner, a U.S. EPA microbiologist and co-inventor of MI Agar with colleague Cliff Rankin says, “We’re glad to see that the product we developed is now commercially available. It’s an improvement in the methods used on a daily basis to protect our drinking water.” For more information on this project contact, Kathryn Iwamasa at (216) 898-6416, iwamasak@battelle.org or Joe Jasper at (216) 898-6409, jasper@battelle.org. 
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The Environmental Technology Commercialization Center (ETC2)
was established in 1998 as a cooperative agreement between Battelle Memorial Institute and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Federal Technology Transfer Office. In its role as a technology intermediary, Battelle’s ETC2 assists industries in licensing EPA technologies that may expand their business opportunities. Recently, ETC2 has been working with a new technology that offers improvements in the area of total coliforms and E. coli testing in the drinking water and food and beverage industries.