Engineers create cell phone-based sensor for detection of E. coli
Thursday, February 23, 2012 - 06:00
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a new cell phonebased fluorescent imaging and sensing platform that can detect the presence of the bacterium Escherichia coli in food and water. The engineers combined antibody functionalized glass capillaries with quantum dots (semiconductors often used for medical imaging) as signal reporters to specifically detect E. coli particles in liquid samples using a lightweight, compact attachment to an existing cell-phone camera.