Our Sensor

The goal of our project is to design a biosensor to rapidly identify cattle known as super shedders. Super shedders are cows that shed extremely high amounts of E.coliO157:H7. O157:H7 is part of a group of E.coli called Enterohaemorrhagic E.coli (EHEC). EHEC organisms produce a toxin called Shigatoxin or verotoxin, which causes hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) and can be deadly.

We are building a very specific nucleotide biosensor that detects not only O157:H7 E.coli but also the DNA of EHEC organisms. Our sensor detects a gene called stx2 that is common among all EHEC organisms.