Swift sampling

A Drexel University engineering professor has developed a millimetre-size cantilever biosensor that can quickly detect cells and proteins in trace samples.

The sensor could have wide applications in medical diagnostic testing, detecting contamination in food products and monitoring for biothreat agents. In medical testing, the sensor can be used to analyze the four most widely tested fluids: blood, urine, sputum and spinal fluid.

Existing conventional tests require 24 hours and a trip to a laboratory to boost the concentration of microbes in a sample to produce findings. The accurate, handheld sensor Dr. Raj Mutharasan, a Drexel chemical engineering professor, has developed over the past six years can yield findings in about 10 minutes.

No direct test for minute amounts of proteins exists on the market. A study published in the April 1, 2007, issue of Analytical Chemistry using Mutharasan’s sensor detected E. coli in ground beef at some of the lowest concentrations ever reported.