Rapid detection of bioterrorism agents in water supplies

Ultimate goal for this research is to provide a monitoring device for bioterrorism agents with fast analysis, low limit of detection, and high accuracy to prevent false negatives and positives and maintain confidence in the monitoring system. Detection is based on a paramagnetic microbead immunoassay that is adaptable to a microfluidic monitoring system. In this project immunoassays were developed and evaluated with simulants for the four categories of biological agents: toxins (ovalbumin); bacteria ( E.Coli O157:H7 Heat killed); spores (B. globigii and B. anthracis Sterne strain (gamma irradiated)); viruses (MS2 bacteriophage).