Riya Panda

About My Work: Rapid and accurate detection of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is essential, especially in resource-limited settings. Development of a hybrid dual-mode biosensor that couples hybridization chain reaction (HCR)-activated DNAzymes with ATP-dependent luminescent quantification to detect total and resistant microbial populations.

Target-specific DNA recognition induces the structural activation of metastable DNAzymes, enabling sequence-selective AMR identification, while luciferase-based ATP detection provides real-time measurement of viable microbial load. Integrating structural DNA sensing with metabolic readout allows differential analysis of total and resistant populations without amplification. This unified system offers rapid, sensitive, and adaptable AMR diagnostics through a fusion of DNA nanotechnology and metabolic biosensing.