Rapid and accurate identification of pathogens causing infections is one of the biggest challenges in medicine. Timely identification of causative agents and their antimicrobial resistance profile can significantly improve the management of infection, lower costs for healthcare, mitigate ever-growing antimicrobial resistance, and in many cases, save lives.
Raman spectroscopy was shown to be a useful—quick, non-invasive, and non-destructive —tool for the identification of microbes. Recent studies suggest that the combination of Raman spectroscopy with optical tweezers has the potential for the identification of microbes directly from human body fluids. We prepared and tested a compact device consisting of a microfluidic chip and optical tweezers to detect and further characterize microbes directly from human body fluids. This project aims to create an acoustic sorting device to improve the efficacy of the compact device.