Pathogen Detection Methods: Scientists Across the Globe

Pathogen Detection Methods:

Scientists across the globe have been able to string total microbial genomes effectively and rapidly due to advances in the DNA sequencing technology. This is largely because the access to the DNA sequences of whole microbial genomes provides new opportunities to evaluate and understand micro-organism at the molecular level. Consequently, many scientists have been able to discover pathogens within biological tissues and examine variations in gene expression in reaction to the invasion of pathogens.

Research Activities in Pathogen Detection:

Pathogen detection methods have been utilized as important parts of research in various fields like food safety, biodefense, pathology, clinical research, drug discovery, forensics, animal health care, and diagnostics. As terrorism has grown to become a major global threat, bioweapons or biological weapons, which are pathogenic organisms and their toxic substances, have become a pernicious threat. These products can be released into the air and water systems or even disseminated, thus requiring appropriate measures to deal with them (Gluodenis & Harrison, 2004).

As a result, the best possible method for dealing with the threat of bioterrorism basically involves the effective implementation of detection and containment procedures as well as treating affected persons immediately. The most common methods used for pathogen detection are Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), culture and colony counting, and immunology-based techniques. These efforts basically entail DNA analysis or evaluation in PCR, counting of bacteria in culture and counting techniques, and counting antigen-antibody interactions in immunology-based methods. In most cases, these techniques are usually combined together to produce more robust results in pathogen detection.

While Polymerase Chain Reaction requires less-time than other detection methods, it's a nucleic acid amplification technology that was developed in mid 80s and is commonly used for detection of bacteria. The major disadvantage of these techniques is that the analyst is unable to differentiate between the visible and non-visible cells since DNA always exists despite of whether the cell is alive or dead. In contrast, the culture and counting technique is regarded as the oldest method for bacterial detection and has continued to be the standard detection technique. However, the techniques are an obvious inconvenience to many applications in the industry because they are excessively time-consuming. On the other hand, immunology-based techniques offer most powerful evaluation tools for a broad range of targets (Lazcka, Del Campo & Munoz, 2006). Despite of their disadvantages, the three methods still account for a significant field with which pathogen detection methods can be enhanced.

The major proposed effort is the use of biosensors in pathogen detection, which in analytical device that includes a biological material, a biologically-derived material, and a biomimic. The technique uses three main categories of biological recognition elements i.e. antibodies, nucleic acids, and enzymes. Biosensors in pathogen detection have been developed alternative approaches to the conventional and standard techniques that take longer to produce results. While they are new and promising approaches that could yield analytical results within the shortest time possible, they require much research and development to become actual and reliable pathogen detection techniques. The main agency involved in the detection of the released pathogens in the air is the BioWatch Program that is funded by the federal government.