Adoption of particle-based biosensing as a cost-disruptive tool for screening highly dilute sample streams for bacterial contamination
File(s)
Article in press
Author(s)
Anyaduba, Dubem
Uwaechia, Onyinye
Onwubiko, Evans
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Target amplification and concentration have been barriers to the realization of LMIC-affordable diagnostic platforms and methods for handling dilute sample streams such as urine or water. The need to amplify targets via nucleic acid amplification, cell culture, and centrifugation increase the complexity and cost of the sample screening process, thereby impacting LMIC adoption and testing rigor. In this proof-of-concept study, we demonstrate the feasibility of detecting 100 Escherichia coli CFU/ mL of water without the need for target amplification. This is enabled by Molecular weightstones (MWS) - a class of non-traditional, particle-based biosensors which signal the presence of bacteria via particle-biomarker aggregation and sedimentation. We demonstrated detection and quantification of E. coli in water in the range of 100 - 1.0×10⁸ CFU/ mL using 1.0×10⁸ MWS particles within 10 minutes and a lower concentration (10 CFU/ mL) in 5 hours. At a cost profile of USD 1 per test(unscaled), MWS can be used as an instrument-free qualitative method for signaling bacterial presence in dilute samples through visually discernible results. It can also be adapted for quantifying bacterial load in dilute samples via computer vision using a companion device.
Date Issued
2026-06-25
Date Acceptance
2026-06-19
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2026
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1038/s41598-026-59352-7
Subjects
Cost-disruption
Rapid Water Testing
UTI
Drinking water
Biosens*
Diarrheal Diseases
LMIC
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2026-06-25