University of Warwick scientists have discovered that healthy bacteria cells and cells inhibited by antibiotics or UV light show completely different electric reactions. These findings could lead to the development of medical devices which can rapidly detect live bacterial cells, evaluate the effects of antibiotics on bacteria colonies, or reveal antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The researchers plan to market the technology to tmaximise social good and have founded a start-up company Cytecom to commercialise the idea.
Source: EurekaAlert, https://www.eurekalert.org