Queen's University Belfast and MOBILion Announce Collaboration to Advance Food Safety

CHADDS FORD, Pa. — Queen's University Belfast (QUB) and MOBILion Systems, Inc. have launched a partnership to advance food safety by innovating test methods and tools that aim to quickly identify contaminants, enhancing current technologies for better detection. The goal is to ensure consumer access to safe, nutritious food, highlighting both organizations' commitment to public health.

Leading this initiative are Professor Chris Elliott, founding director of the ASSET Technology Centre at QUB, and Nick Birse, lecturer in mass spectrometry in the Institute for Global Food Security and School of Biological Sciences. Their work focuses on improving the detection of contaminants such as mycotoxins and PFAS, leveraging QUB's extensive sample libraries and expertise to set new standards in food safety testing.

Central to their efforts is the MOBIE platform, known for its resolution, increased throughput and reproducibility.

"We're excited to be working with MOBILion and Agilent to install the first MOBIE instrument in the UK and second in Europe,” said Birse. “This will significantly enhance our food security research within the Institute for Global Food Security, Queen's University Belfast. The MOBIE system has been shown to accelerate testing by up to 60-fold, allowing for more samples to be analyzed and increasing the chance of detecting contaminants. Its enhanced accuracy ensures greater certainty in identifying problems in food and feed.

“The integration of a new small molecule ion mobility mass spectrometry platform within the extensively equipped ASSET Technology Centre demonstrates a commitment to continuing and improving further on the research which saw Queen's University Belfast ranked No.1 for Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science (2022). Collaborations with vendors such as MOBILion support our vision of undertaking world-leading research, connecting with collaborators across the globe, whether academic or commercial.”

This venture promises to yield joint publications, conference presentations and webinars to disseminate findings to industry stakeholders and regulatory bodies, fostering ongoing communication and collaboration.