Development of nano-colloid with gold nanoparticles to detect Legionella pneumophila using the principle of localized surface plasmon resonance

Legionnaires is a disease caused by the bacteria Legionella pneumophilia present mostly in aquatic environments. The first outbreak of this disease was recognized in 1976 in Philadelphia and the most recent one in July 2019 in Atlanta. Diagnosis of the disease isn’t early and thus need to be prevented by regular treatment. Treatment of water needs information about the water quality which needs on-site based sensors to detect the different pathogens present. At present, there is no viable solution to detect Legionella on site with confidence. This project focusses on developing hand-held optical sensors for rapid detection of Legionella. The completion of this project will address a real world problem and will allow the industry partner to create solutions for liquid borne bacteria. Municipalities, cooling towers, water treatment facilities, business users will be able to use this to assess water quality and make appropriate treatment procedures to avoid any outbreak.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ishwar Puri;Fei Geng;Igor Zhitomirsky

Student:

Srivatsa Aithal;Aiswarya Mathai

Partner:

Genemis Laboratories

Discipline:

Engineering - biomedical

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

McMaster University