The 35th Anniversary World Congress on Biosensors will take place from May 19 to 25, 2025, in Lisbon, Portugal. The MOBILES team will be represented by Léo Baldenweck from France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE).
Léo will present a poster on the current research conducted under the MOBILES project, which focuses on the development of a portable, rapid detection device to identify antibiotic resistance on-site—making patient diagnosis quicker and more accessible for healthcare professionals.
Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic pathogen found in a wide range of environments, both natural and human-associated. The high prevalence of acquired antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in S. aureus raises serious concerns across multiple sectors, including agronomy, the food industry, and human health. This makes monitoring the spread of ARGs critically important, particularly the mecA and vanA genes, which render certain bacterial strains resistant to key antibiotics.
Detection of ARGs is commonly performed using culture techniques, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), or immunological assays. These methods typically require laboratory facilities, complex pre-treatment steps, expensive equipment, and highly trained personnel.
As part of the MOBILES project, the team at INRAE developed a method combining isothermal padlock probe-based rolling circle amplification (PLP-RCA) with a bead-based microfluidic biosensor and fluorescent readout to monitor the mecA and vanA genes in bacterial strains.
The use of isothermal PLP-RCA enables simple, highly efficient, and robust detection of ARGs. Meanwhile, the microfluidic device allows for low-cost analysis with minimal equipment and sample preparation, demonstrating strong potential for point-of-care diagnostics.
Although reaction optimization is still ongoing, initial results using synthetic DNA sequences mimicking the mecA and vanA genes are promising. The research background and the developed diagnostic tool will be presented in a poster at the Biosensors 2025 conference in Portugal.
Learn more at Biosensors 2025 - 35th Anniversary World Congress on Biosensors
Poster: Microfluidic padlock probe-based Rolling Circle Amplification (PLP-RCA) for sensitive detection of mecA and vanA resistance genes in S. aureus and Enterobacter species (P1.52)
Date: Tuesday, 20 May, 2025
Time: 12:45-14:00 PM (Lunch and Poster Session 1)
Location: Pavilion I (link)
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Date: Tuesday, 20 May, 2025
Time: 17:30-19:00 PM (Drinks Reception and Poster Session 1)
Location: Pavillon I (link)
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Biosensors 2025 will take place at CCL - The Lisbon Congress Centre in Lisbon, Portugal.
Address: CCL - The Lisbon Congress Centre Praça das Industrias, 1 1300-307 Lisbon, Portugal
