Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2011AL114B

Development of an In-situ Capable Method for Detecting Pathogenic Bacteria in the Alabama Water Supplies

Institute: Alabama
Year Established: 2011 Start Date: 2011-03-01 End Date: 2012-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $25,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $51,853

Principal Investigators: Ahjeong Son

Project Summary: This project will develop a rapid, accurate, modern yet robust, in-situ technique for the detection of e. coli )157:H7 in water at levels as low as 100 pathogenic organisms per mL. the basis of our technique is the novel use of advanced multi-functional nanoparticles which can be specifically assembled together only in the presence of the target pathogen. It can be easily extended to the detection of other pathogens once the core technique has been developed. Specific results of the research will be in the form of design and performance parameters investigated and established via a series of laboratory experiments.