At least 1.8 billion people worldwide use a source of drinking water that is affected by fecal contamination.
Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that E. coli is responsible for approximately 63,000 deaths each year.
Detection of E. coli in drinking water is important not only because it can be dangerous in its own right, but also because E. coli’s presence serves as a fairly reliable marker of fecal contamination, which means other pathogens could be present, too.
E. coli provides conclusive evidence of recent fecal pollution and should not be present in drinking-water.” However, E. coli detection isn’t always easy or readily available.
In particular, a type of bacteriophage called a T7 coliphage is able to infect most strains of E. coli.
Nugen and colleagues designed their ‘T7NLC’ bacteriophage so that when it finds an E. coli bacterium and commences infection, this triggers production of the NLuc luciferase, which ultimately produces light.
Thus, if the engineered bacteriophage encounters E. coli in a water sample, it will glow.
“If the test determines the presence of E. coli, then you should not be drinking the water, because it indicates possible fecal contamination,” says Nugen.
"Global Good invents and implements technologies to improve the lives of people in the developing world,” says Hinkley.
"Phage-based detection technologies have the potential to rapidly determine if a water source is safe to drink, a result that serves to immediately improve the quality of life of those in the community through the prevention of disease.” Original Research: