Publications

Spectroscopic Detection of Pathogens

Alam, Mary K.; Timlin, Jerilyn A.; Martin, Laura E.

The goal of this LDRD Research project was to provide a preliminary examination of the use of infrared spectroscopy as a tool to detect the changes in cell cultures upon activation by an infectious agent. Due to a late arrival of funding, only 5 months were available to transfer and setup equipment at UTTM,develop cell culture lines, test methods of in-situ activation and collect kinetic data from activated cells. Using attenuated total reflectance (ATR) as a sampling method, live cell cultures were examined prior to and after activation. Spectroscopic data were collected from cells immediately after activation in situ and, in many cases for five successive hours. Additional data were collected from cells activated within a test tube (pre-activated), in both transmission mode as well as in ATR mode. Changes in the infrared data were apparent in the transmission data collected from the pre-activated cells as well in some of the pre-activated ATR data. Changes in the in-situ activated spectral data were only occasionally present due to (1) the limited time cells were studied and (2) incomplete activation. Comparison of preliminary data to infrared bands reported in the literature suggests the primary changes seen are due an increase in ribonucleic acid (RNA) production. This work will be continued as part of a 3 year DARPA grant.