Project Description

This year, WLC Milwaukee will be continuing to expand and improve our previous years project developing an easy to use test kit for E. coli water contamination that is rapid, efficient, and accurate. By using expressed and purified Lambda Phage J-Protein, which is known to bind E. coli LamB, conjugated to an enzyme, we can detect E. coli in a water sample by addition of a color producing substrate cleaved by the conjugated enzyme of choice. This allows the kit to be customized to the needs of the consumer, whether they are a corporation or an individual, simply by changing the conjugated enzyme or substrate used. We believe this simple system of bacteriophage binding protein and enzyme conjugation can be expanded and used to detect other pollution indicating species or potential pathogens in water supplies.