Monitoring the safety of surface water, recreational water, and run-off waters is critical to protect our society from naturally occurring pathogens, as well as unintentional and intentional contaminations. The ability to process large volumes is especially important in environmental analysis, to obtain a sample size that is representative of the water body and to detect pathogens present at very low concentrations (1 pathogen per liter). However, current detection technology does not offer the possibility for rapid on-site analysis of low level pathogen concentrations. Instead, on-site sampling and or filtration is combined with off-site analysis in specialized laboratories.

Conventional methods for the detection of enteric pathogens typically take days and require skilled interpretation, making them unsuitable for rapid response. While these methods have low limits of detection and can be used in difficult sample matrices, their complexity, cost and time precludes their routine and frequent use in environmental sample analysis.

Our current work, in collaboration with Antje Baeumner at Cornell, combines electrokinetic concentration with high-sensitivity immunospecific biosensing to enable detection of very low pathogen concentrations in complex samples.