Diagnosing Foodborne Pathogens Accurately with Biosensors

By Keith Warriner

This is the second part of our series on biosensors. In the first part, we discuss the history of the tool in diagnosing pathogens, along with Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), DNA sequencing and proteomics and metabolomics.

Sample preparation

There has been relatively little attention paid to sample preparation methods. As biosensors become increasingly miniaturized, the need to concentrate the target becomes increasingly significant. Ironically, as diagnostic platforms become miniaturized, so have sample preparation methods, thus, defeating the objective of the exercise. Still, microfluidic systems have been fabricated based on immune separation, which includes devices that take advantage of micro-hydrodynamic flow that can herd cells into “pens”.