Team:McMasterU/Description
[CURRENT FILLER TEXT:] Current point-of-care diagnostic methods for bacteria, such as stool cultures and cell cytotoxicity tests, are costly, time-consuming, and offer only limited strain specificity. These challenges can lead to improper usage of antibiotics, giving rise to antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. This places pressure on healthcare systems internationally, causing many deaths through untreatable infections. Our work focuses on developing a rapid, inexpensive, and sensitive detection method for bacteria using DNAzymes - single-stranded nucleic acids with catalytic activity. These DNAzymes are generated from a library of random oligonucleotides using in vitro selection. In the presence of the target bacteria, a fluorophore-RNA-quencher motif attached to the DNAzyme is cleaved at the RNA site, causing visible fluorescence. We have optimized one such DNAzyme for the detection of E. coli K12 on an agar plate prior to the formation of colonies, and are working on generating a novel DNAzyme for the detection of two pathogenic strains of C. Difficile [/CURRENT FILLER TEXT]
