Nanoplasmonic Paper-Based Platform for General Screening of Biomacromolecules.

Hygiene assessment in industrial and clinical environments is crucial in the prevention of health risks. Current technologies for routine cleanliness evaluation rely on the detection of specific biomolecules, thus requiring more than one test for broad-range screening. Herein, the modulation of the catalytic activity of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) by biomacromolecules was employed to develop a nanoplasmonic platform for general hygiene screening.

Amperometric detection of Enterobacteriaceae in river water by measuring β-galactosidase activity at interdigitated microelectrode arrays.

Two simple methodologies are compared for the detection of faecal contamination in water using amperometry at gold interdigitated microelectrodes. They rely on the detection of β-galactosidase (β-gal) by redox cycling amperometry of the p-aminophenol (PAP) produced by the enzyme from the 4-aminophenyl β-d-galactopyranoside (PAPG) substrate. The use of phages as specific agents for the release of the bacteria-enclosed enzyme allowed the detection of 6×10(5) CFU mL(-1)Escherichia coli in 2 h without any pre-enrichment or preconcentration steps.