New Technique Concentrates Bacteria
Posted on: Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 12:00 CDT
A U.S. led scientific team has developed a technique that concentrates, manipulates and separates a wide class of swimming bacteria.
The research by scientists at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Arizona and Britain's Cambridge University, could have significant applications in biotechnology and biomedical engineering, including use in miniaturized medical diagnostic kits and bioanalysis.
The technique is based on the transmission of a tiny electric current in a very thin film sample cell containing a colony of bacteria. The current produces electrolysis that changes the local pH level in the vicinity of the electrodes. The bacteria, uncomfortable with the changes in pH, swim away from the electrodes and ultimately congregate in the middle of the experimental cell.
Using this method, our research succeeded in dramatically increasing the concentration of microorganisms in tiny fluid drops and films, said Andrey Sokolov, an Illinois Institute of Technology student and a member of the research team. Unlike traditional centrifuging techniques, the new approach allows selective concentration of healthy cells.
The study has been published in the journals Physical Review E and Physical Review Letters.
Source: United Press International
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