Project Description

Infectious diseases have been for centuries ranked on top close to wars as major challenges for human survival. While bacteria is everywhere, some cannot be grown in the laboratory, which makes their detection impossible. We need new technologies that could detect one single bacterial cell, thus eliminating the need of culturing.
Quorum sensing bacteria is a system of chemical signal molecules that enable bacteria to communicate with each other. These are called autoinducers and increase in concentration as a function of cell density.
We propose detection devices that use quorum sensing (QS) chemical signals to detect unculturable bacterial strains. We aim to integrate these signaling molecules into electrochemical wireless sensors for single-cell bacteria. 
We will design microfluidic devices for sample processing, leading to single cell clustering using polymers as confinement agents. These will bind the surface of model bacteria, trapping the cell and providing the culture media for the sample. We will then design a mechanism for autoinducer capture and bacteria sensing. Finally, we will Inkjet-print interdigitated electrodes that will be coated with molecularly imprinted polymers specific for the AI-2 autoinducer and AHL molecules, respectively. and integrate these into wireless sensing configurations for the single cell detection of unculturable bacteria.

Start Date

January 1, 2020

Postdoc Qualifications 

The ideal candidate will have a Ph.D. in Materials Science, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry or related areas. The candidate will be expected to show flexibility and curiosity working at the interface between disciplines.

Co-advisors 

Lia Stanciu, Professor
lstanciu@purdue.edu
School of Materials Engineering
College of Engineering Purdue University
https://lia-stanciu.squarespace.com/

Collaborators

Haley Oliver
hfoliver@purdue.edu
Associate Professor of Food Science
College of Agriculture
https://ag.purdue.edu/foodsci/Pages/profile.aspx?strAlias=hfoliver&intDirDeptID=14

References 

Carnes, E., Lopez, D., Donegan, N., Cheung, A., Gresham, H., Timmins, G., & Brinker, C. (2010). Confinement-Induced Quorum Sensing of Individual Staphylococcus aureus Bacteria. Nature Chem Biol . 6(1): 41–45. 

Elvers, K., & Park, S. (2018). Quorum sensing in Campylobacter jejuni : detection of a luxS encoded signalling molecule. Microbiology, 1828(148), 23-1475. 

Lui, L., Xue, X., Sui, C., Brown, A., Pritchard, D., Halliday, N., Alexander, C. (2013). Bacteria clustering by polymers induces the expression of quorum-sensing-controlled phenotypes. Nature chem (5), 1058-1065. 

Ma, L. (2016). Biomimetic molecularly imprinted polymers : a new quorum sensing capturing agent to prevent bacterial biofilm formation.

Wu, F., & Dekker, C. (2016). Nanofabricated structures and microfluidic devices for bacteria: from techniques to biology. Chem. Soc. Rev. Chem. Soc. Rev, 268(45), 268-280.