Meeting current public health needs: optical biosensors for pathogen detection and analysis

Pathogen detection and analysis is critical for medicine, food safety, agriculture, public health and biosecurity. Many current microbial detection approaches are based on century-old culturing methods which, while reliable, are slow, provide relatively little information about the pathogens and are not adaptable to high throughput operations. Optical biodetection represents a potential alternative. Most ELISA and chromatography systems are based on optical methods that are also used for analysis of molecular interactions, such as DNA hybridization and protein-protein interactions (e.g. microarrays or SPR biosensors). Various optical biosensor platforms have been developed that have many of the characteristics essential for modern pathogen molecular analysis including sensitivity, speed of analysis, multi-channel capability, relative simplicity and low cost. Here we provide several examples of the use of optical biosensor technology for pathogen detection and analysis including high throughput DNA microarray analysis, SPR-based rapid direct detection of bacterial toxins, CCD-based fluorescent activity analysis of microbial toxins and a simple ECL-based CCD detection system. However, while effective for molecular analysis, most of these technologies are not as sensitive as traditional culturing methods for detecting microorganisms. There is a need to combine optical biosensors with traditional methods to speed culture-based detection and to provide more information regarding the pathogens.