Versatile electrochemical sensing platform for bacteria

Bacterial infections present one of the leading causes for mortality worldwide, resulting in an urgent need for sensitive, selective, cost efficient and easy to handle technologies to rapidly detect contamination and infections with pathogens. The presented research reports a fully functional chemical detection principle, addressing all of the above mentioned requirements for a successful biosensing device. At the examples of Escherichia coli and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, we present an electrochemical biosensor, based on the bacterial expression of cytochrome c oxidase, for the selective detection of clinically relevant concentrations within seconds after pathogen immobilization. The generality of the biochemical re-action, as well as the easy substitution of target specific antibodies make this concept applicable to a large number of different pathogenic bacteria. The successful transfer of this semi-direct detection principle onto inexpensive screen printed electrodes for portable devices represents a potential major advance in the field of biosensor development