Scientists at the Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology (UNIST) in South Korea have unveiled their novel diagnostic technique known as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), using artificial polymers – peptide nucleic acid (PNA) – that act as probes to bind to different genetic sequences within bacteria. When the two probe molecules bind to the target, fluorescent signals are emitted, which essentially reveal the fingerprint of different pathogens.

"The fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique allows the rapid detection and identification of microbes based on their variation in genomic sequence without time-consuming culturing or sequencing," the scientists noted. "However, the recent explosion of microbial genomic data has made it challenging to design an appropriate set of probes for microbial mixtures. We developed a novel set of peptide nucleic acid (PNA)-based FISH probes with optimal target specificity by analyzing the variations in 16S ribosomal RNA sequence across all bacterial species."