University College London London Centre for Nanotechnology 17-19 Gordon St London WC1H 0AH uccarmc@ucl.ac.uk
Nanosensors to Rapidly Detect Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs
Programme leadership
Dr Rachel McKendry
Programme members
Dr Rachel McKendry University College London
Dr John Holton University College London Hospital
Dr Vanya Gant University College London Hospital
Dr Joseph Ndieyira University College London
Professor Gabriel Aeppli University College London
Dr Brian Robertson Imperial College London
Professor Chris Abell Cambridge University
Optical image of multiple cantilever arrays. Each cantilever measures 500 μm long, 100 μm wide and 1μm in thickness.
The growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria including MRSA is a global health problem, which costs the NHS more than £1billion per year. One of the major issues is the time required to correctly diagnose an infection, which can take up to 24 hours using classical microbiological methods. DNA microarrays can identify strains within ~4 hours but provide no direct information about the most appropriate therapy. This time lag is problematic for both the individual patient and hospital infection control but it also fuels the cycle of increasing antibiotic resistance due to the incorrect overuse of antibiotics.
The aim of the project is to undertake a proof-of-concept study to exploit miniaturised nanocantilevers to rapidly detect bacteria and identify resistance in a single step. Cantilever sensors have recently attracted much attention for rapid ‘label-free’ detection of single bacteria and viruses within minutes. Key advantages of these label-free sensors are that they do not require PCR amplification steps, fluorescent or radioactive tags and their miniaturised dimensions can be exploited for highly sensitive point-of-care intelligent diagnostics. Rachel McKendry’s group at the London Centre for Nanotechnology is at the cutting edge of cantilever research for disease diagnosis and antibiotic drug screening. The goal of this proposal is to build on this expertise and to develop cantilevers to directly detect clinically problematic antibiotic resistant bacteria. The ‘added value’ of this project is the development of early warning, preventative nanodiagnostics to reduce patient mortality and morbidity.
