Bio-SERS- Detection of Pathogens Using Bionanosensors

细菌的快速检测对公众的健康至关重要，因为由于细菌对抗菌素药物产生耐药性，传染病的威胁正在急剧增加。细菌感染对人类健康构成重大威胁，因此迫切需要制定高效战略，以分离和检测临床样品、环境或食品安全中的微生物。细菌检测通常使用传统的培养技术，然后是显微镜、发光、酶联免疫吸附试验（ELISA）或聚合酶链反应（PCR），以确定细菌的鉴定和物种形成。由于培养步骤，然后是样品制备和分析，这些测试通常需要超过24小时。使用抗体功能化金纳米颗粒的横向流动测试存在于一些病原体中，但是需要高浓度的细菌，而且它们往往不能很好地处理复杂的样品类型。因此，迫切需要快速和高置信度地识别病原体，并明确需要使用点（POU）多路复用传感器。主要研究目标是开发一种新型的、快速的、灵敏的、多路复用的光学生物纳米传感器，用于在不同环境中检测细菌，使用点POU检测策略对多种病原体进行分离、浓缩和检测。使用增强拉曼散射和便携式设备的特定分析，具有用于数据解释的简单用户界面，将能够检测和鉴定特定细菌。不同的选择，包括磁捕获和基于纸流体的方法将被研究。这将用于多种病原体的敏感和特异性检测，而不需要富集培养步骤，这是快速和兼容不同的样品基质，如培养，液体，交换等。将这种新型生物纳米传感器的使用扩展到其他需要快速细菌检测的领域，这些领域足够简单，可以由非科学家进行，这是这种方法的另一个好处。

Rapid detection of bacteria is crucial for the health of the general public as the threat of infectious disease is dramatically increasing as a result of bacteria developing resistance to antimicrobial drugs. Major threats to human health from bacterial infections have led to urgent demands to develop highly efficient strategies for isolating and detecting microorganisms in clinical samples, the environment or for food safety. Bacteria are commonly detected using traditional culture techniques followed by microscopy, luminescence, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to allow definitive identification and speciation of the bacteria. These tests generally take over 24 h due to the culture step followed by sample preparation and analysis. Lateral flow tests using antibody functionalised gold nanoparticles exist for some pathogens, however high concentrations of bacteria are needed and they tend not to perform well with complex sample types. Hence, there is an urgent requirement for the pathogen to be identified quickly and with high confidence levels and a clear need for a point of use (POU) multiplexed sensor. The major research aim is to develop a novel, rapid, sensitive and multiplexed optical bionanosensor for the detection of bacteria in different environments using a point of use POU detection strategy for the isolation, concentration and detection of multiple pathogens. A specific assay using enhanced Raman scattering and a portable device, with a simple user interface for data interpretation will enable the detection and identification of specific bacteria. Different options including ,magnetic capture and paper fluidic based approaches will be investigated. This will be used for sensitive and specific detection of multiple pathogens, without the need for an enrichment culture step, which is rapid and compatible with different sample matrices e.g. cultures, liquids, swaps etc. Extension of use of this new bionanosensor into other areas where there is a requirement for rapid bacterial detection that is simple enough to be carried out by non-scientists is a further benefit of this approach.