Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Jeffrey Tok and his team are developing a technology that would allow soldiers to use the right kind of anti-pathogen protection at just the right time.
The system uses microscopic metal wires that are about 250 nanometers in diameter and 6,000 nanometers long that are then bar-coded just like items in a grocery shop are.
The technology in the wires is a merger of two main parts. On is the tiny wire itself and the other is a collection of antibodies.
These tiny wires are first made and then they are layered with bands of gold, silver and nickel to produce the patterns just like the barcodes that are found in products worldwide.
Then the antibodies are glued to their corresponding wires and at the end of the design procedure you will be having a pool of striped Nanowires with a unique antibody assigned to it.
To identify the pathogen millions of these wires are floated in a neutral liquid called assay buffer into which the pathogens are injected.
If a pathogen meets its corresponding antibody then the two get attached and the wire starts to glow under a special light.
To identify the pathogen a system takes two pictures in quick succession. The first when the special light is off and the barcodes are visible and the second when the special light is on and the wire is glowing. By examining the two images the system is able to determine the respective pathogen.
This technology will speed up the procedure of pathogen detection and thus will be beneficial to the soldiers who would now be able to take the corresponding measures to protect themselves in case of a Biological war.
Via: livescience
