A Novel and Rapid Staphylococcus aureus Bacterial Identification Method Utilizing ImmunoMagnetic Beads and Single Cell Laser-Light Scattering

<p><em>Staphylococcus aureus </em>is the most commonly isolated human associated bacterial pathogen. It plays an important role in skin and soft-tissue infections, pneumonia, endocarditis, osteomyelitis, foreign-body infections, and sepsis. <em>S. aureus </em>diagnosis and treatment requires a minimum of 24-48. With this in mind, previous studies suggest that faster pathogen identification has been linked to improved patient outcomes. Improved patient outcomes including a reduction in hospitalization time, decreased risk of nosocomial infections, and decreased in medical costs. The impact of faster identification on patient outcome has led us to develop an alternative method of <em>S. aureus </em>identification via ImmunoMagnetic Separation (IMS) and laser-light scattering identification technology. With this method, we hypothesized that anti-Protein A conjugated to magnetic DynaBeads could bind to surface Protein A on <em>S. aureus </em>from swab sample and facilitate their isolation upon exposure to a magnetic field within a 4-8 hour procedure. <em>S. aureus </em>cells isolated by IMS would then be accurately identified using laser-light scattering technology in less than 5 minutes. MIT identification accuracy analysis was conducted and displayed that both laboratory and clinical <em>Staphylococcus </em>species strains identified at a rate greater than 95% and negative control strains identified at a rate less than 1%. Our developed methods displayed statistically significant (P < 0.001) specificity for <em>S. aureus </em>and capture efficiency greater than 80%. The combination of IMS and laser-light identification<em> </em>gives a rapid and accurate identification in less than 8 hours, which is significantly less than traditional culture based identification methods.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biology

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Hollen, Kaylagh

Contributors dc:contributor

• Josh Sharp

• Staphylococcus aureus
• MRSA
• bacterial identification
• Immunomagnetic separation
• Food Microbiology
• Life Sciences
• Medical Microbiology
• Microbiology
• Pathogenic Microbiology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/84

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.nmu.edu:theses-1107