A novel
biosensor developed by scientists at Rice University in collaboration with
colleagues in Thailand and Ireland may make the detection of pathogens much
faster and easier for food-manufacturing plants.
The method consists of an array of tiny ‘diving
boards’ that can identify many strains of Salmonella at once.
The
"diving boards" are a set of microcantilevers, each of which can be
decorated with different peptides that have unique binding affinities to
strains of the salmonella bacteria. When a peptide catches a bacterium, the
cantilever bends ever so slightly, due to a mismatch in surface stress on the
top and bottom. A fine laser trained on the mechanism catches that motion and
triggers the alarm. The system is sensitive enough to warn of the presence of a
single pathogen.
For
further details, see the following paper:
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