Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is widely employed for the separation of nucleic acids or protein, but it is rarely applied in the quantification of Escherichia coli (E. coli). Here, we have analysed E. coli by CE with mercury lamp induced fluorescence, and demonstrated the relationship between its fluorescence intensity with the concentration of E. coli for the first time. The gradient concentr...

BACKGROUND The aims of this study were to compare several DNA extraction methods and 16S rDNA primers and to evaluate the clinical utility of broad-range PCR in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) culture fluids. METHODS Six type strains were used as model organisms in dilutions from 10(8) to 10(0) colony-forming units (CFU)/mL for the evaluation of 5 DNA extraction methods and 5...

SU-8 epoxy-based negative photoresist has been extensively employed as a structural material for fabrication of numerous biological microelectro-mechanical systems (Bio-MEMS) or lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices. However, SU-8 has a high autofluorescence level that limits sensitivity of microdevices that use fluorescence as the predominant detection workhorse. Here, we show that deposition of a thin ...

An impedimetric biosensor platform for bio-affinity assays was developed based on real-time, label-free electrochemical detection performed via direct interface to electronic digital data processing. The sensor array consists of 15 gold microelectrode pairs enclosed in three reaction chambers and bio-functionalized with specific DNA probes. The impedance change caused by specific target analyte...

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis can infect a broad range of animals. In Brazil, this bacterium has been isolated from healthy and sick animals from sporadic cases and outbreaks of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis among livestock. However, the molecular diversity of these isolates is little understood. In this study, we used multilocus sequence typing, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR ...

Two of the most common bacterial skin infections of young infants and children are bullous impetigo due to Staphylococcus aureus and its more acute form, staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome. Epidermolysin A (ETA), ETB and, possibly, ETD are responsible for these diseases, which may appear as epidemics in pediatric patients. We tested the reliability of a flow cytometry-assisted multiplex immun...

For many years the IFN-gamma ex vivo ELISPOT has been a major assay for assessing human T-cell responses generated by malaria vaccines. The ELISPOT assay is a sensitive assay, but an imperfect correlate of protection against malaria. Monokine induced by gamma (MIG), or CXCL9, is a chemokine induced by IFN-gamma and has the potential to provide amplification of the IFN-gamma signal. MIG secretio...

High-quality bio-organic fertilizers (BIOs) cannot be produced without the addition of some proteins. In this study, compound liquid amino acids (CLAA) from animal carcasses were utilized as additives into matured composts to create novel BIOs containing plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). The results showed that adding CLAA and inoculating bacteria meanwhile resulted in failed solid-s...