Search

Enteroviruses are a ubiquitous mammalian pathogen that can produce mild to life-threatening disease. Bearing this in mind, we have developed a rapid, accurate and economical point-of-care biosensor that can detect a nucleic acid sequences conserved amongst 96% of all known enteroviruses. The biosensor harnesses the physicochemical properties of gold nanoparticles and aptamers to provide colourimetric, spectroscopic and lateral flow-based identification of an exclusive enteroviral RNA sequence (23 bases), which was identified through in silico screening. Aptamers were designed to demonstrate specific complementarity towards the target enteroviral RNA to produce aggregated gold-aptamer nanoconstructs. Conserved target enteroviral nucleic acid sequence (≥ 1x10-7 M, ≥1.4×10-14 g/mL), initiates gold-aptamer-nanoconstructs disaggregation and a signal transduction mechanism, producing a colourimetric and spectroscopic blueshift (544 nm (purple) > 524 nm (red)). Furthermore, lateral-flow-assays that utilise gold-aptamer-nanoconstructs were unaffected by contaminating human genomic DNA, demonstrated rapid detection of conserved target enteroviral nucleic acid sequence (< 60 s) and could be interpreted with a bespoke software and hardware electronic interface. We anticipate our methodology will translate in-silico screening of nucleic acid databases to a tangible enteroviral desktop detector, which could be readily translated to related organisms. This will pave-the-way forward in the clinical evaluation of disease and complement existing strategies at overcoming antimicrobial resistance.

Enteroviruses are a ubiquitous mammalian pathogen that can produce mild to life-threatening disease. Bearing this in mind, we have developed a rapid, accurate and economical point-of-care biosensor that can detect a nucleic acid sequences conserved amongst 96% of all known enteroviruses. The biosensor harnesses the physicochemical properties of gold nanoparticles and aptamers to provide colourimetric, spectroscopic and lateral flow-based identification of an exclusive enteroviral RNA sequence (23 bases), which was identified through in silico screening. Aptamers were designed to demonstrate specific complementarity towards the target enteroviral RNA to produce aggregated gold-aptamer nanoconstructs. Conserved target enteroviral nucleic acid sequence (≥ 1x10-7 M, ≥1.4×10-14 g/mL), initiates gold-aptamer-nanoconstructs disaggregation and a signal transduction mechanism, producing a colourimetric and spectroscopic blueshift (544 nm (purple) > 524 nm (red)). Furthermore, lateral-flow-assays that utilise gold-aptamer-nanoconstructs were unaffected by contaminating human genomic DNA, demonstrated rapid detection of conserved target enteroviral nucleic acid sequence (< 60 s) and could be interpreted with a bespoke software and hardware electronic interface. We anticipate our methodology will translate in-silico screening of nucleic acid databases to a tangible enteroviral desktop detector, which could be readily translated to related organisms. This will pave-the-way forward in the clinical evaluation of disease and complement existing strategies at overcoming antimicrobial resistance.

A novel method to form multiple instantaneous beams on the sky with a reflector antenna is to employ a dense Phased Array Feed (PAF). This technology is currently being developed to greatly increase the survey speed of existing and future radio telescopes. This paper reviews the current state of PAF development projects for radio astronomy, the particular challenges and the potential for incorporation of PAFs into the ultimate radio survey instrument - the Square Kilometre Array., Proceedings of the XXXth URSI General Assembly, Aug 13-20 2011 (URSI GASS, 2011), Istanbul, Turkey

The square Kilometre Arrat will be a radio telescope with sensitivity 50 times any existing radio telescope. Ambitious targets have been set for antenna and receiver front end performance. This paper discusses the development programs to address these.