An anthrax "smoke" detector

Author

Lester, Elizabeth D. ; Ponce, Adrian

Volume

21

Issue

5

fYear

2002

Firstpage

38

Lastpage

42

Abstract

We report a method for automated monitoring of airborne endospores, which combines an aerosol capture technique with endospore detection based on terbium luminescence turn-on. We have demonstrated quantification of aerosolized bacterial spores with a response time of ~15 min, a sensitivity of 10⁴ spores/ml, and a dynamic range of 4 orders of magnitude using a bioaerosol sampler, a microwave, and a lifetime-gated fluorimeter. Ultimately, the most attractive feature we have demonstrated is the unattended monitoring of aerosolized bacterial spores for the duration of a workday (~8 hours)

Keywords

aerosols; air pollution measurement; biosensors; diseases; health hazards; microorganisms; spectrochemical analysis; surveillance; 15 min; 8 h; aerosol capture technique; aerosolized bacterial spores; airborne endospores; anthrax smoke detector; automated monitoring; bioaerosol sampler; dynamic range; endospore detection; lifetime-gated fluorimeter; microwave; quantification; response time; sensitivity; terbium ions; terbium luminescence turn-on; unattended monitoring; workday; Biomedical engineering; Electromagnetic wave absorption; Fungi; Instruments; Laboratories; Luminescence; Microorganisms; Monitoring; Smoke detectors; Spectroscopy;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0739-5175

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MEMB.2002.1044160

Filename

1044160