The following project has been awarded funding by the AMR network:

'A novel electrochemical nonlinear acoustic method for direct detection of bacterial infection'

Problem

Rapid point-of-care (POC) diagnostics is critical to early onset of ‘precision’ treatment, leading to improved patient outcome and controlled antimicrobial resistance.  Delivering the accuracy of specialised lab-based tests with the desired speed, simplicity and low cost at the point of care is a technical challenge largely unaddressed till date.

Solution to Explore

A recently reported nonlinear acoustic technique, named Anharmonic Detection Technique (ADT), has demonstrated improved sensitivity and specificity in direct detection of bacteria with the potential for use in a rapid POC format [1].  This project aims to explore further enhancement of sensitivity and specificity of ADT under an additional electrode potential, leading to the development of a new and improved direct detection method e-ADT.

1.  S. K. Ghosh et al, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, vol. 29 (1), pp. 145-50, 2011

Project Lead: Sourav Ghosh