Qun Ren, an Empa researcher, and her team are currently developing a diagnostic procedure that can rapidly detect life-threatening blood poisoning caused by staphylococcus bacteria.
This is particularly crucial for the survival chances of those affected, as Staphylococcus aureus strains can be insensitive to various antibiotics. “If the bacteria in a blood sample first have to be cultivated for a diagnostic procedure, valuable time is lost,” explains Qun Ren, the group leader from Empa’s Biointerfaces lab in St. Gallen. Qun Ren and her team colleague Fei Pan therefore looked together with researchers from ETH Zurich for a way to bypass the lengthy intermediate step.
The team has developed a method using magnetic nanoparticles that can bind to staphylococci. The bacteria can thus be specifically detected via a magnetic field. In a next step, the sensitivity to antibiotics is analyzed using a chemiluminescence method. If resistant bacteria are in the test tube, the sample emits light. If, on the other hand, the germs can be killed with antibiotics, the reaction vessel remains dark. “All in all, the sepsis test takes around three hours—compared to several days for a classic cultivation of bacterial cultures,” says Fei Pan.
Another unpleasant representative from the bacterial kingdom is Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This rod-shaped bacterium can cause various diseases, including infections of the urinary tract, for example, via a urinary catheter during a hospital stay. Such infections can subsequently develop into sepsis. And these pathogens are also often resistant to a number of antibiotics.
This is where another advantage of the magnetic nanoparticles comes into play: The method can be tailored to many different types of bacteria, similar to a modular system. In this way, Empa researchers were able to develop a rapid “sepsis sensor” based on magnetic nanoparticles. In samples containing artificial urine, the method reliably identified the bacterial species and determined possible resistance to antibiotics via a chemiluminescence reaction.
So far, the researchers have evaluated their magnetic nanoparticle kit for sepsis and urinary tract infections using laboratory samples. “In a next step, we would like to validate the sepsis tests together with our clinical partners by evaluating patient samples,” says Qun Ren.
The research is published in the journals ACS Sensors and Biosensors and Bioelectronics.
Worldwide, the declining effectiveness of antibiotics causes more than one million deaths each year. For example, some staphylococci can no longer be controlled with common antibiotics because they have developed resistance. The proportion of multi-resistant pathogens is particularly worrying. Already, the worldwide antibiotic resistance of pathogens is being described as a “silent pandemic.” When diagnosing an infection, the speed and precision, with which a germ is identified, can be critical for the survival of those infected.
News
Scientists Discover a New Form of Ice That Shouldn’t Exist
Researchers at the European XFEL and DESY are investigating unusual forms of ice that can exist at room temperature when subjected to extreme pressure. Ice comes in many forms, even when made of nothing but water [...]
Nobel-winning, tiny ‘sponge crystals’ with an astonishing amount of inner space
The 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to Richard Robson, Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi on Oct. 8, 2025, for the development of metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, which are tunable crystal structures with extremely [...]
Harnessing Green-Synthesized Nanoparticles for Water Purification
A new review reveals how plant- and microbe-derived nanoparticles can power next-gen water disinfection, delivering cleaner, safer water without the environmental cost of traditional treatments. A recent review published in Nanomaterials highlights the potential of green-synthesized nanomaterials (GSNMs) in [...]
Brainstem damage found to be behind long-lasting effects of severe Covid-19
Damage to the brainstem - the brain's 'control center' - is behind long-lasting physical and psychiatric effects of severe Covid-19 infection, a study suggests. Using ultra-high-resolution scanners that can see the living brain in [...]
CT scan changes over one year predict outcomes in fibrotic lung disease
Researchers at National Jewish Health have shown that subtle increases in lung scarring, detected by an artificial intelligence-based tool on CT scans taken one year apart, are associated with disease progression and survival in [...]
AI Spots Hidden Signs of Disease Before Symptoms Appear
Researchers suggest that examining the inner workings of cells more closely could help physicians detect diseases earlier and more accurately match patients with effective therapies. Researchers at McGill University have created an artificial intelligence tool capable of uncovering [...]
Breakthrough Blood Test Detects Head and Neck Cancer up to 10 Years Before Symptoms
Mass General Brigham’s HPV-DeepSeek test enables much earlier cancer detection through a blood sample, creating a new opportunity for screening HPV-related head and neck cancers. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is responsible for about 70% of [...]
Study of 86 chikungunya outbreaks reveals unpredictability in size and severity
The symptoms come on quickly—acute fever, followed by debilitating joint pain that can last for months. Though rarely fatal, the chikungunya virus, a mosquito-borne illness, can be particularly severe for high-risk individuals, including newborns and older [...]
Tiny Fat Messengers May Link Obesity to Alzheimer’s Plaque Buildup
Summary: A groundbreaking study reveals how obesity may drive Alzheimer’s disease through tiny messengers called extracellular vesicles released from fat tissue. These vesicles carry lipids that alter how quickly amyloid-β plaques form, a hallmark of [...]
Ozone exposure weakens lung function and reshapes the oral microbiome
Scientists reveal that short-term ozone inhalation doesn’t just harm the lungs; it reshapes the microbes in your mouth, with men facing the greatest risks. Ozone is a toxic environmental pollutant with wide-ranging effects on [...]
New study reveals molecular basis of Long COVID brain fog
Even though many years have passed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of infection with SARS-CoV-2 are not completely understood. This is especially true for Long COVID, a chronic condition that [...]
Scientists make huge Parkinson’s breakthrough as they discover ‘protein trigger’
Scientists have, for the first time, directly visualised the protein clusters in the brain believed to trigger Parkinson's disease, bringing them one step closer to potential treatments. Parkinson's is a progressive incurable neurological disorder [...]
Alpha amino acids’ stability may explain their role as early life’s protein building blocks
A new study from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sheds light on one of life's greatest mysteries: why biology is based on a very specific set [...]
3D bioprinting advances enable creation of artificial blood vessels with layered structures
To explore possible treatments for various diseases, either animal models or human cell cultures are usually used first; however, animal models do not always mimic human diseases well, and cultures are far removed [...]
Drinking less water daily spikes your stress hormone
Researchers discovered that people who don’t drink enough water react with sharper cortisol spikes during stressful events, explaining why poor hydration is tied to long-term health risks. A recent study in the Journal of Applied [...]
Nanomed Trials Surge Highlighting Need for Standardization
Researchers have identified over 4,000 nanomedical clinical trials in progress now, highlighting rapid growth in the field and the need for a standardized lexicon to support clinical translation and collaboration. Nanotechnology is the science of [...]
