Anthrax, detection needs

Events involving deliberate or accidental distribution of bacterial pathogens into our everyday environment have clearly defined the need for a sensitive, specific, and rapid method of bacterial detection. Bioterrorism was first introduced in the United States in 1984 with the Salmonella typhimurium attack in The Dalles, Oregon, by a cult group attempting to affect a local election.1 As a result of this act 751 people contracted salmonellosis, which totally overwhelmed the hospitals and medical clinics with patients. Later our society became keenly aware of the potential of bioterrorism during the last four months of 2001 when Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) spores were sent through the US mail in an envelope to several locations. These events had... 

New research shows that ultraviolet avalanche photodiodes offer the high gain, reliability and robustness needed to detect anthrax and other bioterrorism agents in the air. The fabrication methods and device characteristics were described at the fiftieth Electronic Materials Conference in Santa Barbara on June 25, 2008. Details of the photodiodes were also published in the February 14,2008 issue of the journal Electronics Letters and the November 2007 issue of the journal IEEE Photonics Technology Letters. 

Unfortunately, small is not enough, and improvements in detection schemes are also needed. For example, an anthrax-based attack could be released simultaneously with an immunomodulator that responds to antibiotics used to treat the patient. When an individual exposed to this anthrax cocktail is given antibiotics, the immunomodulator may cause overstimulation of the patient s immune system and result in rapid death. A single-aspect detection scheme may only identify the anthrax and ignore the immunomodulator. This is true regardless of whether the system is macro-, nticro-, or nanoscale. 

The need for rapid detection, identification, and classification of pathogenic microorganisms is vital for clinical, epidemiological, agricultural, and pubhc health emergencies that include a potential biological terrorist attack. Therefore, the efforts to achieve such objectives were substantially intensified after the October 2001 anthrax attack in the USA. Many methods were proposed for this purpose and some... 

The rapid and accurate identification of biomoleclues is vital for first responders in the event of a biological attack, as well as for patients with a need to monitor chronic or acute conditions. In this chapter, we outline the use of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for the detection of calcium dipicolinate (CaDPA), a biomarker for anthrax, and glucose, an indicator for diabetes. 

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