A lab-on-a-silicon-chip platform for all-electrical antibiotic susceptibility tests with a sample-to-results time within 20 minutes.

Authors

Zheqiang Xu, Victoria C Nolan, Yingtao Yu, Petra Muir, Sanna Koskiniemi, Zhen Zhang

Published in

Science advances. Volume 12. Issue 31. Pages eaeb2880. Jul 31, 2026. Epub Jul 31, 2026.

Abstract

Rapid antibiotic susceptibility tests (ASTs) are essential for quick selection of effective drugs to treat infections at an early stage. However, the most widely used phenotypic ASTs in clinical practice often require 24 to 48 hours of pre-culture enrichment and 4 to 20 hours of testing. They are too slow to guide therapy, even with the most rapid protocol. Here, we report a lab-on-a-silicon chip (LOSC) system, which integrates arrays of silicon nanowire field-effect transistor (SiNWFET) sensors with high-throughput cell-collection microfluidics for rapid ASTs. The microfluidics concentrate bacteria into picoliter-scale chambers within minutes, eliminating the need for pre-cultivation. Embedded SiNWFETs sensitively track antibiotic-induced metabolic pH shifts, enabling AST by detecting rapid metabolic inhibition in susceptible bacteria. Using an unbuffered culturing medium, LOSC achieves sample-to-result times within 20 minutes for clinically isolated uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains. With its electrical readout and compact design, LOSC offers a low-cost, rapid, and portable AST solution for point-of-care diagnostics.

PMID:
42536747
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 01 Aug 2026.

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