Improving HLB Diagnosis Through Instrument Engineering

This research will begin by making an instrument available to regulatory labs that can reduce labor costs. It will allow regulatory labs to process significantly more leaf samples at an equivalent cost. Most importantly, it will allow them to increase their sample size, which may be the key in earlier HLB detection. Regulatory labs may be able to double their sample size with very little change in labor cost or reagent cost. Citrus is a worldwide industry and HLB is a worldwide problem, so the “whom” would be any lab whose job it is to profile pathogens within leaf tissue. The sale of these instruments would further support our research on how to provide the most cost-effective way to do plant disease profiling in an orchard or region.