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Updated: Aug 14, 2026
Optical Detection of E. coli Bacteria by Mesoporous Silicon Biosensors
Published on: November 20, 2013
An integrated optical leaky waveguide sensor with electrically induced concentration system for the detection of
Mohammed Zourob1, Stephan Mohr, Bernard J Treves Brown
1School of Materials Science, The University of Manchester, Manchester M17 HS, UK. m.zourob@manchester.ac.uk
Abstract:
An integrated, sensitive and rapid system was developed for the detection of bacteria. The system combined an optical metal-clad leaky waveguide (MCLW) sensor with an electric field. The electric field was used to concentrate Bacillus subtilis var. niger(BG) bacteria spores onto the immobilized anti-BG antibody on the MCLW sensor surface. This sensor combination has been characterised by detecting the scattering from bacterial spores, which are concentrated at the sensor surface, when they are illuminated at the coupling angle; and by detection of fluorescence from labelled antibodies added after the spores had been captured on the surface. The light scattering and fluorescence detection methods gave a detection limit of BG bacterial spores of 1 x 10(3) spores ml(-1) when the electric field was applied for 3 minutes.
