A traveling surface acoustic wave-based micropiezoactuator: A tool for additive- and label-free cell lysis.

We propose a traveling surface acoustic wave (TSAW)-based microfluidic method for cell lysis that enables lysis of any biological entity, without the need for additional additives. Lysis of cells in the sample solution flowing through a poly (dimethyl siloxane) microchannel is enabled by the interaction of cells with TSAWs propagated from gold interdigitated transducers (IDTs) patterned onto a LiNbO piezoelectric substrate, onto which the microchannel was also bonded. Numerical simulations to determine the wave propagation intensities with varying parameters including IDT design, supply voltage, and distance of the channel from the IDT were performed.

A multiplex Taqman PCR assay for MRSA detection from whole blood.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) causes a wide range of hospital and community-acquired infections worldwide. MRSA is associated with worse clinical outcomes that can lead to multiple organ failure, septic shock, and death, making timely diagnosis of MRSA infections very crucial. In the present work, we develop a method that enables the positive enrichment of bacteria from spiked whole blood using protein coated magnetic beads, followed by their lysis, and detection by a real-time multiplex PCR directly.

Extracellular biosynthesis of CuO-TiO nanocomposites using Alcaligenes aquatilis for the photodegradation of reactive and azo dyes under visible light irradiation.

In this study, CuO/TiO nanocomposites were biologically synthesized using cell-free supernatant (CFS) of Alcaligenes aquatilis growth culture by two-step synthesis method, one-pot method with sequential addition of precursors, and one-pot method with simultaneous addition of precursors. The one-pot method with simultaneous addition of precursors was found to be the best method for the synthesis in terms of degradation of reactive blue-220 (RB-220) and acid yellow-17 (AY-17) dyes under visible light irradiation. CuO/TiO nanocomposite was found to have the crystallite size of 14.