Your Mobile Can Now Sniff Bacteria With This Biosensor & App
A Biosensor and a mobile app have been developed by Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi which together can be used for bacterial detection.
In the front camera of the mobile Biosensor can be fit once this is done the image captured by the camera are sent to the mobile app called as “colorimetric detector”, which is an app developed by the Team of IIT Delhi for analysis. If the mobile app detects the bacterial presence it will change the biosensor surface color into black measuring the relative change in surface color. The mobile phone will vibrate and give a red signal once it reaches the set point. This whole process makes the detection easy and cost-effective.
Biosensors have been tested by the Researchers with four bacterial strains namely Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus. Separate ampicillin antibiotic resistant culture of Escherichia coli was also been prepared for testing. Existing methods have been used like fluorescence microscopy and colony forming unit in order to test and verify the results. Live and dead bacteria were distinguished by the Biosensor mobile app
within six hours in comparison to the conventional methods which takes about 16 to 24 hrs as concluded by the results.The researchers said infections and diseases caused by antibiotic-resistant and non-resistant pathogens can be diagnosed easily in clinics and labs with the help of this biosensor mobile app.
The biosensor depends on hydrogen sulfide gas delivered by microorganisms. It is a gaseous signaling molecule that transmits biological signals in the living system. In the core of the biosensor are silver nanorod sensors that respond with hydrogen sulfide to frame darkly shaded silver sulfide. The shading and water wetting properties of silver nanorods change when presented to microorganisms, while dead ones don’t do any such thing.
Prof J P Singh who led the research Team said: “Watching noticeable change in shading and water wetting on the sensor cluster, one can without much of a stretch recognize live and dead and also anti-toxin safe and ordinary microscopic organisms,”. The gadget can be utilized by anybody and can be useful in averting the spread of irresistible sicknesses, he included.
Ordinary procedures like standard plate tally are tedious and require prepared individuals. Professor Singh Included “There are different systems like UV spectroscopy and stream cytometry, which are generally simple yet require modern instruments and gifted specialists. To conquer these issues, an effortless system is basic to avert antimicrobial obstruction contaminations and ailments,”.
Prof Prashant Mishra and Dr. Neeti Kalyani Prof J P Singh, Shashank Gahlaut, Dr. C Sharan were the part of the research team from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.