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The detection of bacterial contamination has been automated by British
company Biotrace. Its portable, oven-sized instrument, called Auto-Track,
detects microbes in samples of liquid or air using firefly luciferase, an enzyme
that glows when it comes into contact with a cell’s energy-storing ATP, as used in an earlier prototype
(Technology, 16 November 1996, p 22).
The technique has now been made 100 times more sensitive by detecting adenosine kinase, an enzyme
which cells use to build ATP. Auto-Track, which costs around £20 000,
takes three to eight minutes to register contamination. It can be programmed to
initiate a response—such as injecting a biocide into a pulping tank at a
paper mill or beginning a wash cycle in the pipes of a dairy.