from Theron et al. in Nanotechnology in Water Treatment Applications

Due to advances in areas such as genomics and biotechnology, powerful methodologies have been developed to detect both specific pathogens and indicator organisms. Because many microorganisms are not easily cultured or can enter a viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state, the current methods focus on immunological or genetic characteristics to detect the presence of specific waterborne pathogenic microorganisms. Not only do these methods increase the rapidity of analysis, but they are also able to achieve a high degree of sensitivity and specificity without the need for complex cultivation and additional confirmation steps. Consequently, some of these methods permit the detection of specific culturable and/or nonculturable microorganisms within hours, instead of the days required with the traditional methods.

Tags: Microbial Detection | Pathogen Detection | Biodiagnostics | Biodetection Assays | Biomolecular Detection