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In 2010, Evelyn Sorensen, an art history professor in Arizona and a patient with stage II cervical cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes, was told by her doctor [...]

A novel instrumental-digestion technique using pressure-assisted chelating extraction (PACE), for undergraduate laboratory is reported. This procedure is used for exposing students to safe sample-preparation techniques, for correlating wet-chemical methods with modern instrumental analysis and comparing the performance of PACE with conventional wet acid-digestion techniques.

Presented herein are two detection strategies for the identification and quantification of Bacillus globigii, a spore forming nonpathogenic simulant of Bacillus anthracis. The first strategy involves a label-free, metal-enhanced electrochemical immunosensor for the quantitative detection of Bacillus globigii (atrophaeus). The immunosensor comprises of antibacillus globigii (BG) antibody self-assembled onto a gold quartz crystal electrode via cystamine bond. A solid-phase monolayer of silver underpotentially deposited onto the cystamine modified-Au-electrode surface is used as the redox probe. The monolayer was also generated by adsorbing silver nanoparticles on the gold electrode. When the antibody-modified electrode is exposed to BG spores, the antibody-antigen (Ab-Ag) complex formed insulated the electrode surface toward the silver redox probe. The variation of redox current was found to be proportional to the concentration of the BG spores between 1 x [10.sup.2]-3.5 x [10.sup.4] spores/mL A detection limit of 602 spores/mL was obtained, which is well-below the infectious dose of anthrax spores at 2.5 x [10.sup.5] spores/mL. The second approach involves the use of ultrasensitive portable capillary biosensor (UPAC) to detect the spores. The capillary is an enclosed system that acts as the flow cell, the waveguide, and the solid support for immobilized bimolecular probes. An evanescent excitation generates a signal from an antigen antibody-fluorophore complex, which propagates along the capillary and is guided to the detector. A limit of detection of 112 spores/ mL was reported using the UPAC sensor. Both methods showed lower detection limits compared to the conventional ELISA. The effect of potential interferants tested using Bacillus pumilus confirmed the selectivity for the analyte. This work should allow the first responders to rapidly detect and quantify Bacillus globigii spores at concentrations that are well-below the infectious dose.