Mar 23, 2018
Chip detects Legionnaires’ bacteria in minutes, not days
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biotech/medical, computing
When the water in the rooftop cooling towers of a building’s air conditioning system gets infected with Legionella bacteria, people in the building can get potentially-fatal Legionnaires’ disease. Therefore, it’s important to check that water for the bacteria on a regular basis. A new chip is promised to do it faster than ever.
The typical method of checking for Legionella involves putting a water sample in a Petri dish, then waiting 10 to 14 days to see if any bacterial cultures grow. Unfortunately, populations of Legionella can reach outbreak levels is as short a period as one week. Additionally, if an outbreak has already occurred, then its source needs to be ascertained as fast as possible.
That’s why the new LegioTyper chip was created.