Biosensor Platforms for Rapid Detection of E. coli Bacteria

Abstract

Risks of contamination with the well-known food pathogen Escherichia coli are increas-ing over the years. Therefore, rapid and portable technologies using different types of advanced devices named biosensors with various transduction capabilities (electro-chemical, optical, or acoustic) were developed and seem to offer the most elegant solu-tions for research communities and final users-humans. Thus, integration of microfluidic biochips/biosensors into smartphones offer the real-time detection of any infection with E. coli, helping doctors in proceeding immediately with the clinical treatment. The pres-ent chapter will discuss about the analytical performances of biosensors and microfluid-ics such as selection of substrates, type of (bio)functionalization, low limit of detection, specificity, and response time for monitoring different E. coli strains. Thus, it is possible to rapidly identify (30–90 s) very low concentrations of E. coli (10 1 CFU/mL) down to a single bacterium in real samples (water, urine, milk, beef-meat) by simple integration of an angle scatter method and microfluidic-cellulosic pads (μPAD) loaded with micro-/ nanoparticles functionalized with either polyclonal anti E. coli antibodies or with DNA strains into a portable device—a smartphone. Such biosensor configuration can also be used for the detection of other types of microorganisms with potential human and animal health concerns.