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Updated: May 7, 2026

Wide-field Fluorescent Microscopy and Fluorescent Imaging Flow Cytometry on a Cell-phone
Published on: April 11, 2013
Profiling of the microbes on the surface of smartphone touchscreens
Nanase Takahashi1, Anna Wakui2, Yume Sekizawa3
1Division of Clinical Chemistry, Niigata University Graduate School of Health Sciences, Niigata 951-8518, Japan.
Abstract:
The commensal microbiota of the finger-skin before and after ethanol disinfection were characterized and compared with the microbes isolated from the surface of smartphone touchscreens. The number of bacteria on the smartphone touchscreens was low, similar to that on the fingers after ethanol disinfection, suggesting that the surface of the touchscreens may not be suitable for the growth of microorganisms, rather than the surface of the fingers. Furthermore, ethanol disinfection reduced the number of bacteria on the finger-skin to 1/13 of the original count before disinfection.
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