The rapid and reliable detection of pathogenic microorganisms is an important issue for the
safety and security of our society. Here we describe the use of a sensitive, inexpensive,
amperometric, phage-based biosensor for the detection of extremely low concentrations of
Bacillus cereus and Mycobacterium smegmatis as models for Bacillus anthracis (the
causative agent of anthrax) and for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the causative agent of
tuberculosis), respectively. The detection procedure developed here enabled the …