Real-Time Detection of
Biological Pathogens in Urban
Environments
Laura Barry
Hung Phan
Gloria See
Introduction to Biosensors
Presentation 3 - 5/10/2011
Project Details
A review of biosensor technology for real-time
pathogen detection in urban environments.
Pathogen are agents known to cause disease in living
organisms such as plants, animals, and humans
Pathogens may include:
Bacteria
Viruses
Biotoxins
Fungus
Traditional Methods of Detection &
Identification
Methods require time and labor intensive stages:
• Sample w/ unidentified agent: air, soil, food/water,
sputum etc.
• Purification
• Culture enhancement
• Selective/differential plating
• Isolation and subculturing
• Inoculation for physiological and biochemical tests
• Evaluation of physiological and biochemical tests
sciencedude.ocregister.com
gene-quantification.de
Basic components of sensor system
Advances in biosensor technology
Approaches
• Point detection
• Standoff technologies
• Passive standoff technologies
• Lab-on-a-chip
Technologies
• Cell-based
• Structure based identification
• Nucleic acid sequence
identification
• Light scattering
• Optical
• Infrared
• Two-component reporter
system
• Microfluidics
Current Biosensor Technologies
• Diagnostic Assays
o Uses probes and assays to identify Pathogen
o Identifies known select genome strands in pathogen
to detect families of pathogen
o Identifies full strands of known genome to identify
specific pathogen
o Sensitive
o Fast
o Expensive
Current Biosensor Technologies
• Microfluidics
o Tiny chips that have fluid
channels and sensing
chambers
o Lab-on-chip
o Uses nucleic acid-base to
detect pathogens
 E-noses
 Can identify single molecule
in samples
 Can flag DNA strands
o Ergonomic, Fast, Expensive
http://futuremed2011.com/headlines-from-the-future/
http://www.indiatalkies.com
Current Biosensor Technologies
• Optical Sensors
o Fluorescence
 Optical multisensors, usually with each specialized with a single
reactant
o
 organic materials react with the sensing surface and change
the intensity of the light
Surface Plasmon Resonance
 target is collected
 object’s surface is excited by a light source and it oscillates
to a certain frequency
Current Biosensor Technologies
• Bioreporters
o using cells or other organisms to detect relevant stimuli
o utilizes inherently rapid response times of cellular signaling
o easy to use
o reporting system needs to be established in advance
o organisms need to be maintained in their testing
Bomb-Sniffing Plants Colorado State University
environment
Current Biosensor Technologies
• Other approaches
o Electrochemical: Used for DNA and immunusensors
o Electromechanical: Usually mass-change sensors that
attract pathogens
o Chemical: Detecting specific compounds native to
specimen, usually utilizing surface chemistry
Current Biosensor Technologies
• Nanomaterials
o Coupled with other sensing technologies, nanomaterials
expand the potential for biosensors
o Cell and molecule scale features make detection easier
o Sensitivity and threshold limits are improved
o Increased surface area gives more room for substrates to
be treated, detection and increases device sensitivity
Relevant Applications:
• Airport, subways, high human traffic environments (DHS,
TSA)
• Transportation Security Administration
• Borders, ports (DHS, DOS)
• Battlefield
• Infrastructure (WHO, EPA, industry, National Biodefense
Program)
• Emergency Responders
Existing Systems – E-Noses:
• Inspired from nature
• uses a combination of new
technologies to detect
pathogens
• reduces time from days to
fifteen minute intervals
• currently being developed to
detect spoiled meat
NASA's E-Nose courtesy JPL
courtesy of 4to40.com
Existing Systems - BioWatch Program:
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Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Pathogen sensors are mounted at air quality monitoring stations.
Sensors collects particles in the air which pass through filters.
Based on BASIS, (Biological Aerosol Sentry and Information
System).
Design of filter mechanism uses automatic sequential filtering.
Deployed in 2002 for indoor/outdoor monitoring at the Olympics,
tested for urban environment.
Only a few of the results from these tests were released, it was
shown to have high specificity and sensitivity while having less
than 0.005% false positives.
The system is labor intensive.
October 2003, Texas - first positive result of tularemia was
reported, detection was modest, precautionary measures were
taken
Existing Systems – TB Breathalyzer
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Rapid Biosensor Systems is a UK based development company
Technology for rapid screening of infectious agents.
TB Breathalyser device for screening within a few minutes.
Analyses the sample by via displacement assay utilizing
the evanescent wave and bio-optical sensing technologies
• Design: small, robust, simple to use, non-invasive and low cost.
• January 2011: entered into agreement with Ortho Clinical
Diagnostics, Inc. to bring the breathalyser into production.
Future Challenges in Biosensor Technology
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Detection limits/sensitivity
Multisensor devices
Reliability/accuracy of detection
Speed of analysis
Field environments
Reusable, robust devices
Cost of fabrication and testing
References
Friedli, Andrienne. Phase 1 Final Report. SERRI Project: Biosensor Research. Supported by Dept. Homeland Security & Dept. of
Energy Interagency Agreement.
Introduction to Biological Agent Detection Equipment for Emergency First Responders, NIJ Guide 101-00. NCJ 190747, Alim A. Fatah;
John A. Barrett; Richard D. Arcilesi Jr.; Kenneth J. Ewing; Charlotte H. Lattin; Timothy F. Moshier, December 2001, NIJ, (53
pages).
Donaldson, Kim A. et. al. A rapid detection method for Vaccinia virus, the surrogate for smallpox virus
Jinseok Heo, et. al. An Overview of Recent Strategies in Pathogen Sensing
Cynthia J. Bruckner-Lea. Biosensor Systems for Homeland Security
Biosensors for Anthrax Detection - Program Overview
From Counter Terrorism to Pathogen Detections
Multiplexed Electrochemical Detection of Yersinia Pestis and...
Nanosensors in the Age of Terror
New Biosensor for Rapid Detection of Anthrax Lethal Toxin
Nucleic Acid-based Detection of Bacterial Pathogens...
Pathogen Biosensors
Rapid detection of Bacillus anthracis...
References
The Autonomous Pathogen Detection System
Environmental Microbiology: Current Technology and Water Applications (Keya Sengupta) 2011
Chapter 12: The Microbe as a Reporter: Microbial Bioreporter Sensing Technologies for Chemical and Biological Detection (pg 281)
Ripp. Layton, Sayler
(http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1gjZxeeqil4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA281&dq=urban+detection+biological+pathogens&ots=
eClEls7TAz&sig=OwBzdesm2DNtiB_NcNp5kS84LyY#v=onepage&q=urban%20detection%20biological%20pathogens&f=false)
The Coming Together of the Sciences: Biosensors for the Detection of Waterborne Pathogens Using Antibodeies and Gene-based
Recognition Chemistries (Sen Xu and Raj Mutharasan)
Microbial Source Tracking (Domingo, Lamendella, Ashbolt)
Chemical and Biological Weapons: Current Concepts for Future Defenses Plamen A. Demirev, Andrew B. Feldman, and Jeffrey S. Lin.
Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, Volume 26, Number 4. 2005.
A high-throughput pipeline for designing mircroarray-based pathogen diagnostic assays. Ravi Vijaya Satya, Nela Zavaljevski, Kamal
Kumar and Jaques Reifman. BMC Bioinformatics 2008, 9:185. Published 10 April 2008.
Antunes MS, Morey KJ, Smith JJ, Albrecht KD, Bowen TA, et al. (2011) Programmable Ligand Detection System in Plants through a
Synthetic Signal Transduction Pathway. PLoS ONE 6(1): e16292. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016292
An Optofluidic Nanoplasmonic Biosensor for Direct Detection of Live Viruses from Biological Media
Ahmet A. Yanik, Min Huang, Osami Kamohara, Alp Artar, Thomas W. Geisbert, John H. Connor, Hatice Altug Nano Letters 2010 10
(12), 4962-4969
References
Nucleic Acid Amplification Strategies for DNA Microarray-Based Pathogen Detection
Gary J. Vora,1* Carolyn E. Meador,2 David A. Stenger,1 and Joanne D. Andreadis1†
Feng, Peter. Rapid Methods for Detecting Foodborne Pathogens. Bacteriological Analytical Manual, 8th Edition, January 2001.
Zourob, M. et al. ed. Principles of Bacterial Detection: Biosensors, Recognition Receptors and Microsystems. Springer, New York, NY,
2008
Sack, Kevin and Timothy Williams. “Deaths of 9 Alabama Patients Tied to Intravenous Supplement”. The New York Times [New York
City] 31 March 2011, page A20.
Shea, Dana A. and Sarah A. Lister. “The BioWatch Program: Detection of Bioterrorism”. Congressional Research Service Report No.
RL 32152. November 19, 2003
Camilleri, Dennis. “New Screening Solution Offers Hope in the Battle Against TB”. Rapid Biosensor Systems. 2008.
http://www.rapidbiosensor.com/pdf/RBS%20New%20Screening%20Solution.pdf