Citation: Nan Li, Weifei Zhang, Gaowa Xing, Zengnan Wu, Xiaorui Wang, Ling Lin. A microfluidic biosensor for rapid detection of live bacteria based on immune magnetic separation and photothermal lysis of gold nanorods[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(4): 111704. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.111704 shu

A microfluidic biosensor for rapid detection of live bacteria based on immune magnetic separation and photothermal lysis of gold nanorods

Nan Li ^a ,
Weifei Zhang ^b ,
Gaowa Xing ^b ,
Zengnan Wu ^b ,
Xiaorui Wang ^c ,
Ling Lin ^{c, *,}

a.
School of Chinese Materia Medica, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China
b.
Department of Chemistry, Beijing Key Laboratory of Microanalytical Methods and Instrumentation, Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus Chemistry and Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
c.
Department of Bioengineering, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China

linling@btbu.edu.cn

Received Date: 11 April 2025
Revised Date: 12 July 2025
Accepted Date: 10 August 2025
Available Online: 11 August 2025

Figures(5)

Foodborne bacterial infection is a serious threat to food safety, especially live pathogens causing outbreaks of most diseases. Thus developing live bacterial detection methods is important for public health. In this study, a microfluidic biosensor was developed for rapid detection of live Salmonella typhimurium, in which immune magnetic particle chains in microchannels were used to separate and enrich target bacteria, antibody-conjugated gold nanorods (GNRs) were applied for photothermal lysis of target live bacteria under near-infrared (NIR) irradiation, and a photon-counting detector was used for measuring adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence in the presence of firefly luciferin/luciferase. This biosensor was proved to be able to quantitatively detect S. typhimurium from 5.0 × 10² CFU/mL to 5.0 × 10⁶ CFU/mL in 60 min (magnetic separation 20 min; GNRs combination 20 min; NIR irradiation, 8 min) with limit of detection (LOD) of 495 CFU/mL. This biosensor showed an excellent specificity in the coexistence of other foodborne bacteria, and target bacteria were successfully measured even in the matrix interference of milk sample with mean recovery of 121.17%. This biosensor might be a promising tool for on-site assessment foodborne bacteria.
- Microfluidic biosensors,
- Live bacteria detection,
- Immune magnetic separation,
- Photothermal lysis,
- ATP bioluminescence
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