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A device developed by NRC can identify bacteria using hundreds of tiny sensors that fit on a silicon chip the size of a fingernail. Each sensor can be fitted with an antibody that binds to a particular strain of bacteria. The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg developed the antibodies that NRC is using to test the device.
“We attach various antibodies to the sensors on the chip, then run an unknown sample over it and look at which sensors give a positive response,” says Dr. Siegfried Janz of NRC. “That tells us which bacteria were in the sample.”
Normally, identifying a harmful strain of bacteria can be like trying to spot a single suspect in a crowd. For example, of the hundreds of strains of E. coli, only a handful are dangerous; many are harmless and exist in your gut all the time.
"When you're about to diagnose a patient, or tell a food company that they've got to stop manufacturing, you've got to make sure it's one of the dangerous ones," says Dr. Janz. “Our aim is to be able to identify these harmful strains of bacteria quickly.” The ultimate goal is to develop the sensor for use in food and water testing.
ISSN 1927-0275 = Dimensions (Ottawa. Online)
