Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2012 Development of a Specific, Sensitive, and Robust Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) to Detect Trace Amounts of Almond (Prunus Dulcis L.) Mengna Su Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact
[email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF HUMAN SCIENCES DEVELOPMENT OF A SPECIFIC, SENSITIVE, AND ROBUST ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOSORBENT ASSAY (ELISA) TO DETECT TRACE AMOUNTS OF ALMOND (PRUNUS DULCIS L.) By MENGNA SU A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2012 Mengna Su defended this dissertation on March 15, 2012. The members of the supervisory committee were: Shridhar K. Sathe Professor Directing Dissertation William T. Cooper III University Representative Yun-Hwa Peggy Hsieh Committee Member Jodee Dorsey Committee Member Mary Ann Moore Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii To my parents, Xingqing Su (苏兴庆) and Qianhua Chen (陈倩华); my husband, Jinqing Xie (谢 锦清); my daughter, Yier Xie (谢漪儿); my brother and sister. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I believe I will never come to this point without the help of many brilliant and immensely supportive people. Special thanks to my major professor, Dr. Shridhar K. Sathe, for providing the opportunity to work in his lab in NFES at FSU, for suggesting research direction, for instructing in person of key lab skills, for the excellent and quality scientific instruments and materials made available, for the freedom in pursuing my research interest, and for the tough four years and eight months training…I would like to deeply thank Dr.