Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati researchers have developed a cheap handheld device for rapid detection of bacteria.
The device was invented by two professors and three former Ph.D scholars of the prestigious institute.
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The professors are Parameswar K Iyer of the department of chemistry and Siddhartha S Ghosh of the department of biosciences and bioengineering.
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The former Ph.D scholars include Anamika Dey, Ashish Singh and Deepanjalee Dutta.
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They completed their Ph.D from the Centre for Nanotechnology of IIT Guwahati.
The device, whose main component is an Organic Field Effect Transistor (OFET), can not only detect bacteria but also can differentiate between Gram positive and Gram negative types of bacteria.
The detection of bacteria in body fluids is currently done in laboratories.
Human cells taken for detecting the presence of bacteria are initially cultured or grown so that a sufficient number of cells are formed for smooth bacterial analysis.
The research work has been patented and published in the July 2019 issue of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
The invention of the handheld device of bacteria will not have useful applications in healthcare but in various other scientific areas like in environmental monitoring applications and in anti-bioterrorism measures.