An Advanced Sensor for Rapid, On-Site Detection of Legionella Contamination in Water

Legionnaires’ disease is a lung infection caused by Legionella bacteria which typically leads to severe pneumonia or a mild flu-like illness known. Legionella bacterial infections are estimated to cause 8,000 to 18,000 hospitalizations annually and account for 2% to 9% of all reported pneumonia illnesses. Legionella is transmitted to people through inhalation of Legionella-containing water droplets. Culture, the current gold standard method, suffers from a slow sample-to-answer turnaround and severely underestimates the concentration of viable Legionella, thus increasing the risk of pathogen transmission. Although PCR significantly improves on the testing time, commercial offerings do not distinguish between viable and non-viable bacteria cells. This Phase I will develop a portable, advanced molecular diagnostic device for rapid, on-site detection of viable Legionella cells in water samples without requiring specialized operator training and access to an advanced molecular testing laboratory. The availability of our rapid Legionella sensor will improve water management programs and surveillance efforts by enabling earlier detection of sources of pathogen transmission and better monitoring of the effectiveness of disinfection control measures. Overall, rapid Legionella detection will decrease the time it takes to respond to incidents of confirmed contamination, which will help to reduce the burden of Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks. Provide key