Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2006ND98B

Rapid and Sensitive Determination of Bacteria in Water Using Nanoparticles

Institute: North Dakota
Year Established: 2006 Start Date: 2006-03-01 End Date: 2007-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $14,400 Total Non-Federal Funds: $28,800

Principal Investigators: Julia Xiaojun Zhao

Project Summary: Bacteria can grow or re-grow in distribution systems of drinking water. In fact, potable water is a major source of some bacteria colonization,for example L. pneumophila and E coli. etc. The L. pneumophila in potable water can replicate rapidly and increase in virulence. Given the low infectious dose of pathogenic bacteria, the presence of even a single bacterium in potable water may pose a serious health risk. Therefore, sensitive and rapid detection of bacteria in water is critical. However, the current definitive method for the detection of bacteria is the culture of the organism, which requires about 24 hours for bacterial growth. The method is too slow to meet the public need. The PCR-based method can detect bacteria within six hours; but the method requires pre-enrichment of the target bacteria. The proposed method will be able to specifically identify target pathogenic bacteria at a single bacterium level within 30 minutes in water samples. The objective of this proposal is to develop a rapid and ultrasensitive method for the specific identification and quantitative determination of pathogenic bacteria in water. The major feature of the proposed method is the employment of fluorescent nanoparticles as target bacteria identifiers that could emit strong fluorescent signals. The method will be accurate, rapid and sensitive to meet the public need.