Antibiotic resistance has been cited by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as one of the greatest threats to public health. Mitigating the spread of antibiotic resistance requires a multipronged approach with possible interventions including faster diagnostic testing and enhanced antibiotic stewardship. This study employs a low-cost diagnostic sensor test to rapidly pinpoint the correct antibiotic for treatment of infection. The sensor comprises a screen-printed gold electrode, modified with an antibiotic-seeded hydrogel to monitor bacterial growth. Electrochemical growth profiles of the common microorganism, Escherichia coli (E. coli) (ATCC 25922) were measured in the presence and absence of the antibiotic streptomycin. Results show a clear distinction between the E. coli growth profiles depending on whether streptomycin is present, in a timeframe of ≈2.5 h (p < 0.05), significantly quicker than the current gold standard of culture-based antimicrobial susceptibility testing. These results demonstrate a clear pathway to a low cost, phenotypic and reproducible antibiotic susceptibility testing technology for the rapid detection of E. coli within clinically relevant concentration ranges for conditions such as urinary tract infections.

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The antenna is one of the key building blocks of many wearable electronic devices, and its functions include wireless communications, energy harvesting, and radiative wireless power transfer. In an effort to realize lightweight, autonomous, and battery‐less wearable devices, we demonstrate a reconfigurable antenna design for 5G wearable applications that requires ultra‐low driving voltages (0.4–0.6 V) and operates over a high frequency range (3.3–3.8 GHz). For smart glasses applications, previous antenna designs were ‘fixed’ and mounted on the eyeglass frame itself. Here, we demonstrate a reconfigurable design that could be achieved on the lens itself using an anisotropic liquid crystal (LC) material. We demonstrate how liquid crystal alignment and electric field patterns strongly influence the tuning capabilities of these antennas in the gigahertz range and present a smart, reconfigurable spiral antenna system with a liquid crystal substrate.

Antimicrobial resistance is the greatest threat to public health, and has been forecast to kill more than 10 million people each year by 2050. Current antimicrobial susceptibility testing takes at least 1-2 days, which can drive resistance and have a severe impact on patient health (e.g. sepsis). This article describes screen-printed electrodes which are modified with agarose-based hydrogel deposits for rapid, antimicrobial susceptibility testing. This protocol represents a phenotypic approach, and is suitable for use across a wide range of different organisms (bacteria/fungi) and sample types (blood, urine, sputum, CSF, etc.). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy is shown to produce a time to result for susceptibility testing of common pathogens (e.g. S. aureus, E. coli) in < 1 hour.