A nasal irrigation diagnostic assembly comprising an irrigation device including a fluid collection portion structured to retain a biological sample, in the form of waste solution from the nasal cavity resulting from irrigation. A detection member disposed on said irrigation device is exposed to the biological sample and is structured to determine the existence of at least one analyte within the biological sample of the waste solution. The detection member comprises a plurality of detection zones individually structured to analyze the biological sample upon engagement therewith, wherein said plurality of zones include at least a reaction zone and a detection zone, which respectively include reagents cooperatively and collectively formulated to detect the existence of the at least one analyte within biological sample of the waste solution. A control zone may also be included to indicate the intended operability of at least the detection member.

A rapid antibiotic susceptibility test (AST) based on the detection and quantification of the movement of single bacterial cells with a plasmonic imaging and tracking (PIT) technology. The PIT-based AST detects changes in the metabolic activity of the bacterial cells long before cell replication, and allows rapid AST for both cultivable and non-cultivable strains. PIT tracks 3D movement with sub-nanometer resolution and millisecond temporal resolution. PIT also allows simultaneous measurement of the binding kinetic constants of antibiotics and bacterial metabolic state after the introduction of antibiotics.

The present invention provides for engineered molecular opsonins that may be used to bind biological pathogens or identify subclasses or specific pathogen species for use in devices and systems for treatment and diagnosis of patients with infectious diseases, blood-borne infections or sepsis. An aspect of the invention provides for mannose-binding lectin (MBL), which is an abundant natural serum protein that is part of the innate immune system. The ability of this protein lectin to bind to surface molecules on virtually all classes of biopathogens (viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoans) make engineered forms of MBL extremely useful in diagnosing and treating infectious diseases and sepsis.

The present disclosure provides compounds useful for the prevention of amyloid formation and the treatment of amyloid related disorders, including synucleopathies such as Parkinson's Disease.

A biosensor for detecting bacteria may use bacteriophages in a sandwich-assay system. The biosensor may include a capture element and a detection element. The capture element may include a substrate and a bacteriophage. The detection element may include a bacteriophage and a signal amplification element. The biosensor may be utilized such that the target bacterium is sandwiched between the capture element and the detection element, and a quantifiable signal may be generated to measure the amount of bacteria in a sample. The biosensor of the present invention utilizes direct sensing to detect the bacteria in the sample as opposed to indirect sensing methods.

Methods for a cell-based assay for Botulinum neurotoxin are provided in which a transfected cell that produces a reporting peptide is contacted with a Botulinum neurotoxin in media having a sub-physiological osmolarity and a temperature that is above physiological temperature. This combination provides an unexpected synergistic effect in reducing the EC.sub.50 of the cell-based assay relative to an analogous cell-based assay performed at physiological osmolarity and temperature.

The present invention relates to a fast, simple and very sensitive method for the detection of bacteria, comprising the steps of providing one or more suspensions each comprising at least one species of labeled test bacteriophages which specifically bind to a bacterial species to be detected; adding a sample to be tested for the presence of at least one bacterial species to be detected to the one or more suspensions; filtering the reaction mixture; detecting bacteria-bacteriophages-complexes on the surface of the filter in the retentate, provided that at least one bacterial species to be detected is present, wherein the complexes consist of bacteria of the at least one bacterial species to be detected and test bacteriophages of the at least one species of test bacteriophages bound thereto; detecting unbound test bacteriophages in the filtrate; processor-aided processing of received detection signals and output of detection results.

The present disclosure relates to a fluorescent supramolecular biosensor, more particularly to a fluorescent supramolecular biosensor which shows change in fluorescence signal through binding to a specific bacterium and a method for preparing the same. The fluorescent supramolecular biosensor is advantageous in that it exhibits remarkably superior affinity and selectivity for a target bacterium. In addition, because a secondary coiled coil stereostructure is highly stabilized as the supramolecular building block is self-assembled to form the fluorescent supramolecular biosensor, the fluorescent supramolecular biosensor can be stored for a long period of time without structural change even at high temperatures.

The present invention relates to DNA sequences encoding Vmp-like polypeptides of pathogenic Borrelia, the use of the DNA sequences in recombinant vectors to express polypeptides, the encoded amino acid sequences, application of the DNA and amino acid sequences to the production of polypeptides as antigens for immunoprophylaxis, immunotherapy, and immunodiagnosis. Also disclosed are the use of the nucleic acid sequences as probes or primers for the detection of organisms causing Lyme disease, relapsing fever, or related disorders, and kits designed to facilitate methods of using the described polypeptides, DNA segments and antibodies.

This present invention describes the derivation and selection of antibodies capable of neutralising the major exotoxins; TcdA and TcdB of Clostridium difficile. The invention also describes novel neutralisation and antigen binding properties of individual Mabs and mixtures thereof.