Project Details
Projekt
Real time nanosensor for multiparallel bioanalytics
Subject Area
Microsystems
Biomaterials
Biomaterials
Term
from 2014 to 2018
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 250701819
The excessive use of antibiotics in stock farming represents a major driving force for the rapid emergence of drug-resistant pathogenic bacteria accounting for increasing cases of nosocomial infections and related morbidity and mortality. In order to impose national and international restrictions on the use of antibiotics in farming, rapid and sensitive antibiotic quantification methods are required. The aim of the project is the development of new concepts for electronic read-out of biomolecular/drug-target interactions for real time evidence of particular small molecules in an analyte and the detailed investigation of cross sensitivity of the device and the multiplexed detection of several different small molecules, such as antibiotics, after developing a separated functionalization of selected nanostructures on the chip. We will combine nanotechnology with microbial genetics for pioneering a novel method for the real-time monitoring and quantification of antibiotics. For this aim we will functionalize ZnO nanowalls with antibiotic-responsive bacterial DNA-operator / regulator protein combinations in a way that the regulator protein is dissociated from the nanowall in the presence of antibiotics in the test sample. The thereby induced change in the surface charge of the semi-conducting nanowall will result in a change of its electric conductivity that can be read out in real-time. We will apply this approach for detecting antibiotics from the tetracycline, macrolide and streptogramin families that are commonly used in stock farming or have recently been banned from use. This project will be realized by joining expertise in the design and manufacturing of nano-sized devices with a strong background in bacterial genetic regulation and their application in synthetic biology. We expect that this truly interdisciplinary project will provide the scientific basis for a novel highly sensitive and real-time detection method of antibiotics in food samples for controlling antibiotic abuse and ensuring consumer safety.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
