Auburn Research Day 2021

B i omed i ca l Resea rch | Gr adua te St udent Portable Device for Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) Diagnosis

Detection of bacteria in urine is important for earlier diagnosis of infection diseases. Among the pathogenic bacteria tested in urine, E. coli represents the biggest number following by many others, such as Enterococcus faecalis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococci, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. E. coli represents about 85% of community-acquired infections. When the population of a pathogenic bacteria in a urine sample (i.e., 10 5 CFU/ml) is higher than a certain level, the urine sample is considered as positive. In the United States, UTI are responsible for health care costs of $3 to 4 billion annually. Currently, bacteria in a urine is detected using PCR and/or culture- based methodologies. The time required for the test changes over a wide range, from about one hour to days. All the current methods require a tester (i.e., nurse) to handle the urine samples from patient to get the targeted bacteria into the test instrument, which is unpleasant for the tester. In this project, we are developing a new portable device based on our newly developed magnetostrictive particle (MSP) biosensor technology for UTI. The portable device is easy to use, sensitive, and Wei Yi 1 , Jiachen Liu 1 , Z.-Y. Cheng1 Kenny Brock 2 1 Auburn University; 2 Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine 032 The research objective is to design and test insoles with attached Nitinol springs to obtain biomechanical information and mitigate knee osteoarthritis. The insoles are intended to absorb much of the dynamic impact load transmitted from ground through the foot to the knee during walking, jogging and even during the slow continuous movements from Tai Chi. It is proposed that the impact force be absorbed by attached woven wire super-elastic Nitinol springs. Super-elastic Nitinol, a two-phase Nickel Titanium alloy which undergoes a phase change under strain, is strong, like steel, but recovers up to 8% loaded strain upon unloading (versus e.g. steel of .2% recovery). Super-elasticity, combined with the exceptional strength of a metal, opens the door to new and paradigm-shifting energy absorbing insole designs with enhanced impact and shock absorption, a reduced space requirement in the shoe and long-life under repeated loading. A proof-of-concept (preliminarily tested in the VCOM Rehabilitation Biomechanics Laboratory), consisted of flat strips of woven Nitinol wire that were wrapped around and joined at the ends to make a circular strip spring. Several circular strip springs were placed on the underside of the portion of the insole under the heel, and in human Amanda Skalitzky; Caleb Petersen; Daniel Meadows; Wei Liu; David Beale Auburn University 033

more importantly, it is inexpensive, and the tester does not need to handle the urine sample. A patient will be given a container, in which the MSP biosensor is pre-loaded. The patient collects the urine sample in the container and seals the container. When the container is given the tester, all the tester needs to do is place the container on the portable device that will read the MSP biosensor since the MSP biosensor is wireless. In the development of the MSP biosensor, antibody against E. coli is used as the biomolecular recognition unit that is immobilized onto the surface of MSP to form the MSP biosensor. That is, the portable device developed in this project is designed to detect E. coli. However, if other bacterial targets are needed, by using another specific antibody, MSP biosensors for other bacteria can be easily fabricated using the methodology established in this project. The very same portable device can be used to interrogate different MSP biosensors designed for different bacteria. The only change in the portable device is the threshold for a urine sample to be considered as positive.

Educa t i ona l Resea rch | Gr adua te / Undergr adua te St udent The Effect of Nitinol Insoles on Force Mitigation in Knee Osteoarthritis

subject testing compressed radially but is believed did not quite flatten. Impact forces were simultaneously recorded on both shoes as the subject landed, one shoe having the Nitinol spring insole and the other without. Results showed that the peak impact load was reduced by 35%. In the proposed work spring design parameters can be varied, including multiple weave pattern architectures, wire diameters, spring geometry, number and mass of the Nitinol springs, etc. At VCOM, insole testing will include force plate data and camera digitized recording of subject positions and velocities measured with and without the Nitinol insoles, and also compared to commercial- of-the-shelf shock absorbing insoles. Invasive measurement of knee loading during human locomotion is difficult and not without risk in vivo, so external knee adduction moment (EKAM) will be derived from three-dimensional motion analysis. The ability to weave Nitinol wire is a new creation from a joint effort with the proposing researchers, NASA and an industrial partner, with NASA’s interest being for extraterrestrial vehicle Nitinol wheel manufacture. Woven Nitinol manufacture was achieved by significantly modifying a commercially available needle loom.

25 2021 Via Research Recognit ion Day