It is provided novel anti-galactofuranose antibodies and their use for diagnosis of and/or treating aspergillosis, and for the design of chimeric antigen receptor T-cells, wherein single chain variable fragment of the antibodies, such as a heavy chain variable region or a light chain variable region, is fused via a spacer and a transmembrane domain to a signaling endodomain to generate an expression cassette that will be integrated into a T cell.

A method and composition for extracting an analyte from a test sample such as grain, so as to determine whether the test sample is contaminated with a toxin. The method is particularly useful for detecting the presence in a batch of grain of a mycotoxin, such as for example aflatoxin, ochratoxin, T2, zearalanone, vomitoxin (deoxynivalenol a/k/a DON), patulin and fumonisin. Extraction is performed with use of a composition that includes a proteinaceous material, such as albumin, as an extraction agent.

A system for determining an amount of fungal particles in air in a building includes including: an air inlet connected to a filter for filtering particles having a size of 1-120 μm; means for collecting fungal particles from the filtered particles and transferring the collected fungal particles to at least one sample cuvette; means for dry denaturation of the fungal particles; means for producing a voltage change of the dry denaturised fungal particles and means for detection of voltage changes caused by the dry denaturised fungal particles to obtain voltage change data; means for collecting a sample; means for wet denaturation of the fungal particles subsequent to the detection of voltage changes. The system further includes at least two of means for immunological detection of the fungal species in the sample to obtain immunological data; means for measuring glucose concentration of the sample to obtain glucose concentration data; means for measuring light emission of the sample to obtain light emission data.

A method for identifying and evaluating toxigenic capability of an aflatoxigenic strain. A ratio of the aflatoxin yield to Nor-1 gene transcriptional quantity is determined to have high relative stability. An Aspergillus flavus strain toxigenic capability identification model is established, and thus a regression equation between the Aspergillus flavus toxigenic capability and the ratio AFT/Nor-1 of the aflatoxin yield to the Nor-1 gene transcriptional quantity is obtained.

The invention relates generally to synthetic non-antibody protein scaffolds (synNAPS) that differentially detect or quantitate a target insecticidal protein in a complex biological matrix comprising the target protein and a non-target insecticidal protein and to methods of using the synNAPS in immunoassays, and more particularly to monoclonal antibodies and immunoassays for the differential detection and quantitation of a wild-type crystal protein, such as a wild-type-Cry1Ab, from Bacillus thuringiensis and hybrid crystal proteins, which comprise all or a significant portion of the wild-type Cry protein in complex biological samples comprising both the wild-type Cry protein and one or more of the hybrid Cry proteins.

A problem to be solved is to perform an immunoassay method for BG in a biological sample simply operated and having a sensitivity equivalent to that of a Limulus reagent.

The problem can be solved by combining a pretreatment of a biological samples with an alkaline solution and a use of anti-BG monoclonal antibody specifically reacting with BG.

Presented herein, in certain aspects, are compositions that comprise novel toxin proteins, the nucleic acids that encode them, and/or portions thereof, which toxins are expressed by fungi of the Mucorales order and are thought to contribute to the pathogenesis of Mucormycosis. Also presented herein, in certain aspects, are methods of detecting the presence or absence of novel fungal toxins and/or the nucleic adds that encode them in a sample, which methods can be used to identify the presence of Mucorales in a subject. Methods and/or compositions presented herein can be used to prevent and/or treat a Mucorales infection.

Materials and methods for detecting and treating Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) are provided herein. For example, materials and methods for enriching and detecting biomarker antigens (e.g., polypeptides and/or glycans) from Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii, the fungi that cause Valley Fever, are described herein, as are methods for treating an individual for Valley Fever based on the results of the described detection methods.

Described herein are engineered microbe-targeting or microbe-binding molecules, kits comprising the same and uses thereof. Some particular embodiments of the microbe-targeting or microbe-binding molecules comprise a carbohydrate recognition domain of mannose-binding lectin, or a fragment thereof, linked to a portion of a Fc region. In some embodiments, the microbe-targeting molecules or microbe-binding molecules can be conjugated to a substrate, e.g., a magnetic microbead, forming a microbe-targeting substrate (e.g., a microbe-targeting magnetic microbead). Such microbe-targeting molecules and/or substrates and the kits comprising the same can bind and/or capture of a microbe and/or microbial matter thereof, and can thus be used in various applications, e.g., diagnosis and/or treatment of an infection caused by microbes such as sepsis in a subject or any environmental surface. Microbe-targeting molecules and/or substrates can be regenerated after use by washing with a low pH buffer or buffer in which calcium is insoluble.

A β-1,6-glucanase mutant which is a mutant of β-1,6-glucanase (EC 3.2.1.75), wherein a Glu residue located at a position corresponding to Glu (E)-321 in SEQ ID NO: 1 is substituted by an amino acid residue X or a Glu (E) residue located at a position corresponding to each of Glu (E)-225 and Glu (E)-321 in SEQ ID NO: 1 is substituted by an amino acid residue X, wherein the amino acid residue (X) is selected from the group consisting of Gln (Q), Gly (G), Ala (A), Leu (L), Tyr (Y), Met (M), Ser (S), Asn (N), and His (H); and a method for measuring β-1,6-glucan, including measuring β-1,6-glucan bonded to the mutant.