BUG TRAP: This box, held by Rice University graduate student Jinghui Wang, contains a tiny array (black) of microcantilevers designed to detect a variety of Salmonella pathogens. JEFF FITLOW/RICE UNIVERSITY
Rice University chemical and biomolecular engineer Sibani Lisa Biswal was familiar with using microcantilevers to study DNA structure and dynamics and to characterize protein interactions with artificial cell membranes. Her postdoc advisor at the University of California, Berkeley, had used the molecular-size diving boards to detect prostate cancer antigen. So when Stanford graduate school friend Nitsara Karoonuthaisiri, now at the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC) in Thailand, asked Biswal about the possibility of using microcantilevers to detect food-borne pathogens, she couldn’t see why it wouldn’t work.
“[Microcantilevers] are becoming so common, people are doing some really cool things,” says Jeff Rhoads, a mechanical engineer at Purdue University. In particular, he notes, there has been “growth in recent years in introducing these systems ...
