Dynabeads are highlighted in dark gray in the image, while the infamous Salmonella bacteria are visible in green. At the same time, a layer of antibodies is visible in the shape of the English letter Y. Photo: Loza Tedisi and Marissa MacDonald
Boston, USA: A traditional blood test can take a day to a week to detect a germ or disease. The same goes for water and food tests. However, experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created this test to quickly identify germs. In the first step, they have identified salmonella bacteria in contaminated food.
They are named ‘dynabeads’ on which antibodies recognize different bacterial molecules. The beads are then subjected to ‘Raman spectroscopy’, with some traces confirming the bacteria.
The signatures seen in Raman spectroscopy can be further clarified with a luminescent tag, which emits color or light to tell us about the bacteria. Importantly, the signature created in this process appears in less than an hour. But so far it can only identify bacteria.
This system is still very large and extensive, and efforts are underway to miniaturize it to fit into a handheld device. Its details, however, have been published in the journal Raman Spectroscopy. This system can identify bacteria in food and water. It can also be used successfully in poor and remote areas, but the result will be similar to that of a modern laboratory.
Research team member Marisa MacDonald says that finding bacteria in water is difficult and their invention can easily do this. It takes minutes instead of days. Commercially available microscopic magnetic beads are used for dynabeads. The antibodies are then used as a hook that grabs the bacteria’s molecules.
It can also identify bacteria in the blood. However, efforts are also being made to make it a commercial technology.
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