Piezoelectric Biosensors for Bacterial Detection and Speciation

15 Piezoelectric Biosensors for Bacterial Detection and Speciation--Biode, Inc., 20 Freedom Parkway, Bangor, ME 04401-5745; (207) 848-2083 Dr. Jeffrey C. Andle, l, Principal Investigator Dr. Jeffrey C. Andle, Business Official DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-97ER82335 Amount: $74,490 Recent developments in genetically engineered bacteria have opened tremendous opportunities for the Department of Energy and industry in the detoxification of hazardous waste sites. While the benefits are enormous, the resulting bacterial species are not natural to the ecosystem and specific subspecies must be continuously monitored in the field. Monitoring instruments should have detection limits as low as tens of organisms per liter and should have detection times of several minutes. This project will evaluate the ability of piezoelectric detectors to provide the requisite stability, sensitivity and ruggedness for field-based bacterial detection and speciation. Three essential steps will be addressed in Phase I: the selection of the piezoelectric sensor geometry, the selection of an attachment chemistry and the demonstration of sensor performance. The Phase I effort will employ sample injection of crude polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product to demonstrate detection. Phase II will focus on engineering refinement of the system components, integration of sample collection, preconcentration and amplification reactor subsystems with the detector and the evaluation of sensor arrays. Phase II will result in a prototype of a complete system with detect limits of tens of organisms per liter. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: This project is expected to result in a low cost, simple, sensitive and selective field portable sensor with applications in environmental monitoring, food processing, clinical diagnostics and medical research. The instrument will address Federal, state and municipal requirements, as well as industrial (e.g. agriculture, food processing and fisheries) requirements for bacterial detection and speciation.