ACHEMA 2018

•••21 ••• Innovationen “LegioTyper”: New microarray rapid test Innovative lm-based measuring chip enables faster detection of Legionella pathogen I n an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, finding the exact source as quickly as possible is essential to preventing further infections. To date, a detailed analysis takes days. Using an innovative film- based measuring chip, research- ers at the Technical University of Munich have now developed a new microarray rapid test that achieves the same result in about 35 minutes. Legionella are rod-shaped bacte- ria that can cause life-threatening pneumonia in humans. They mul- tiply in warm water and can be dispersed into the air via cooling towers, evaporative recooling sys- tems and hot water systems. The most dangerous among the al- most 50 species of Legionella is a subtype of Legionella pneumoph- ila. It is responsible for 90 per cent of all infections. When an out- break occurs, the source of the germs must be identified as soon as possible to prevent further in- fections. Similar to a paternity test, the origin of the outbreak is confirmed when the germs in the process water of a technical system exactly match those iden- tified in the patient. However, often numerous systems must be tested in the process, and the requisite cultivation for the test takes around ten days. Meanwhile there is a rapid test for detecting the Legionella pathogen in the clinic. It identifies the compounds formed by Legionella in the urine of patients. “Unfortunately, this quick test serves only as a first indication and is not suitable for screening the water of technical systems,” says PD Dr. Michael Sei- del, head of the research group at the Chair of Analytical Chemistry and Water Chemistry of the Tech- nical University of Munich. The team of scientists thus de- veloped a measuring chip in the context of the “LegioTyper” pro- ject funded by the German Fed- eral Ministry of Education and Research. This chip not only de- tects the dangerous pathogen Legionella pneumophila but also identifies which of the approxi- mately 20 subtypes is present. The system can be deployed for environmental hygiene as well as clinical diagnostics. First author Catharina Kober with the LegioTyper-chip Photo: Jonas Bemetz / TUM