The Silicon Review ^Asia

This new invention by a team of researchers from IIT Delhi will now help detecting bacteria in a quick span of time. The researchers have created a biosensor and a mobile app which can spot and recognize bacteria.

In the beginning, the biosensor was tested with different bacterial strains, namely- Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.  A different ampicillin antibiotic resistant culture of Escherichia coli was prepared for testing. 

Finally, the researchers used techniques like fluorescence microscopy and ‘colony forming unit’ counting to verify the results.

The results revealed that in a span of 6 hours, the smartphone- app based biosensor could distinguish whether the bacteria is alive or dead. Generally, traditional methods take upto a day to carry out the same process.

According to the researchers, the new biosensor can be used in clinics and hospitals for diagnosis of infections and antibiotic resistant diseases which also include non-resistant pathogens too.

People can use the new biosensor on their smartphones by fitting it on the front camera. To use the device, users must take pictures and send them to the mobile app called “colorimetric detector”. The app is a part of the development and is used for analysing the result.

The colour of the biosensor surface will change into black due to the presence of live bacteria; the app will measure the relative change in surface colour. After reaching a set point, the phone starts vibrating and a red signal is blinked. Therefore, the process makes detection affordable, easy, and portable.