Antibiotic susceptibility test (AST) shows the efficacy of antibiotics against different strains and is frequently applied in finding new antibiotics, bacteria identification, and clinical analysis. The tests provide scientific evidence for finding pathogens and avoiding the misu
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Antibiotic susceptibility test (AST) shows the efficacy of antibiotics against different strains and is frequently applied in finding new antibiotics, bacteria identification, and clinical analysis. The tests provide scientific evidence for finding pathogens and avoiding the misuse of antibiotics.
The first AST was invented by Alexander Fleming in the 1920s, right after the invention of antibiotics. Since then, methods of antibiotic testing have developed and improved. The nanomotion method is one of the auspicious methods in antibiotic susceptibility tests (AST). It features detecting the vibration of single living bacteria on the graphene drum before and after being treated with antibiotics. However, such a method is restricted in laboratory conditions currently. The aim of this thesis is to make the nanomotion method compatible with clinical requirements. As a result, a new set of designs including chips and their cartridge is fabricated and validated in this thesis.
In this research, a review including the traditional and up-to-date AST methods shows that in the nanomotion method, only one measurement is carried out simultaneously. As the research question, this novel design is supposed to carry out a few measurements with different parameters including concentration and antibiotic category.
To realize this purpose, concept designs analyzing the requirements are carried out on three components, fluid system, ventilation and sealing. More parameters regarding the material and fabrication are discussed in order to ensure its requirements including durability, printing quality and more.
In the end, the design is validated and tested in the setup. The result is compared to the original nanomotion method and the traditional AST method. We hope the thesis provides the possible direction of improvements for the nanomotion method.