Magnetoelastic Biosentinels for the Capture and Detection of Low-Concentration Pathogens in Liquid

This paper investigates phage-coated magnetoelastic (ME) biosentinels that capture and detect low-concentration pathogenic bacteria in stagnant liquid. These biosentinels are composed of a freestanding ME resonator platform coated with a landscape phage that specifically binds with the pathogens of interest. These biosentinels can be moved through a liquid by externally applied magnetic fields. When a time-varying magnetic field is applied, the ME biosentinels can be placed into mechanical resonance by magnetostriction. As soon as the biosentinels bind with the target pathogen through the phagebased biomolecular recognition, a change in the biosentinel’s resonant frequency occurs, and thereby the presence of the target pathogen can be detected. Detection of Bacillus anthracis spores under stagnant flow conditions was demonstrated.