Magnetotactic phage-based microrobotic systems for the detection of live bacteria

生物传感器是将生物组件与电子组件集成以产生可测量信号的探针。用于检测和定量细菌污染的生物传感器的发展是非常多样的。它不仅关系到国家安全，还关系到环境和医疗领域，需要新的生物传感器来快速准确地诊断疾病。在食品、医院、本研究的目的是开发一种新的生物传感系统，用于检测细菌和细菌生长，具有更短的检测周期和更高的灵敏度与传统方法相比。拟议中的生物传感微系统将使用一种称为趋磁细菌的特殊细菌，这种细菌可以由集成在检测微系统上的微型计算机控制。这些趋磁细菌会附着在预先涂有特殊病毒的小球上。通过控制趋磁细菌的游动路径，将执行对可能含有危险细菌的样品的扫描。如果一个被趋磁细菌推动的球体与一个危险的细菌接触，它会与球体结合，因为趋磁细菌会像胶水一样作用于这个特定的目标细菌。然后，趋磁细菌将被指示将微型球体推到特殊的电子探测器上，以检测和量化被捕获的危险细菌的数量。该项目的成功实现将对人类危险生物的检测产生巨大影响，并将有助于使国家，环境和公共场所更加安全，同时为疾病的检测和预防提供重要工具。

A biosensor is a probe that integrates a biological component with an electronic component to yield a measurable signal. The development of biosensors for the detection and quantification of bacterial contaminations are very diverse. It concerns not only national security but also the environment and the medical field where new biosensors are required for the rapid and accurate diagnosis of diseases. The detection of dangerous bacteria in food, hospitals, and drinking water supplies continue to rely on conventional techniques and methods that require relatively long period of time to get results and which because of such delays may lead to catastrophic consequences.The goal of this multidisciplinary project is the development of novel biosensing systems for the detection of bacteria and bacterial growth with shorter detection periods and higher sensitivities compared with conventional methods. The proposed biosensing microsystems will use special bacteria called magnetotactic bacteria that can be controlled by a miniature computer integrated onto the detection microsystem. These magnetotactic bacteria will attach themselves to small spheres previously coated with special virus called phages. By controlling the swimming path of the magnetotactic bacteria, a sweep of the sample that potentially contains the dangerous bacteria will be performed. If a sphere being pushed by a magnetotactic bacterium comes in contact with a dangerous bacterium, it will bind to the sphere because the phages will act like "glue" for this specific target bacterium. Then, the magnetotactic bacteria will be instructed to push to miniature spheres to special electronic detectors to detect and quantify the amount of dangerous bacteria being captured. The successful realization of this project will have a huge impact in the detection of dangerous organisms for humans and would contribute to make the country, the environment, and public places much safer while providing an important tool for the detections and preventions of diseases.