Dielectrophoresis-Based Discrimination of Bacteria at the Strain Level Based on Their Surface Properties

Insulator-based dielectrophoresis can be used to manipulate biological particles, but has thus far found limited practical applications due to low sensitivity. We present linear sweep three-dimensional insulator-based dielectrophoresis as a considerably more sensitive approach for strain-level discr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Willner, Dana, Hugenholtz, Philip, Rabaey, Korneel, Buie, Cullen R., Braff, William
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Public Library of Science 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/83513
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2275-4570
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9529-2912
Description
Summary:Insulator-based dielectrophoresis can be used to manipulate biological particles, but has thus far found limited practical applications due to low sensitivity. We present linear sweep three-dimensional insulator-based dielectrophoresis as a considerably more sensitive approach for strain-level discrimination bacteria. In this work, linear sweep three-dimensional insulator-based dielectrophoresis was performed on Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14 along with six isogenic mutants as well as Streptococcus mitis SF100 and PS344. Strain-level discrimination was achieved between these clinically important pathogens with applied electric fields below 10 V/mm. This low voltage, high sensitivity technique has potential applications in clinical diagnostics as well as microbial physiology research.