ChEBE Faculty Research
Nehal Abu-Lail, Ph.D.
Design Sensors and Actuators to Detect Pathogens
The use of deflection micro cantilevers for sensing application has emerged as a new simple, reproducible, and sensitive technique. In this technique, only one surface of the micro cantilever is usually modified, allowing a differential stress to propagate as the analyte of interest is bound to its target on the modified surface. The micro cantilever can be modified with the specific ligands to the bacterial type (pathogen) of interest. Upon soaking in the bacterial solution, the bacteria specifically binds to the ligands by the receptors on its surface. An array of micro cantilevers of which each is modified by a different ligand can be used to detect multiple types of pathogens in one test. Similarly, environmental biosensors to detect the bacterial binding capacity for certain metal ions can be investigated in a similar fashion. Therefore, in this part of my research, I would like to apply the deflection of micro cantilevers technique to develop environmental sensors to detect fatal pathogens from water and different types of media.
Demonstrative cartoon that shows the concept of specific binding of one pathogen to a modified micro-cantilever with its receptors from a solution that contains two types of bacteria (blue and orange).