Publications by María Inés Villalba

Nanomotion-Based Drug Sensitivity Prediction in Ovarian and Colon Cancer Cell Lines Using Machine Learning

Cancer drug resistance remains a critical challenge in oncology, demanding rapid and reliable diagnostic tools to assess tumor cell susceptibility to treatment. This study presents a nanomotion-based drug susceptibility testing (DST) approach, integrating ...

American Chemical Society (ACS)2025

Effect of surfactants on inactivation of Bacillus subtilis spores by chlorine

Sandor Kasas, Urs von Gunten, María Inés Villalba, Tianqi Zhang

Bacterial spores pose significant risks to human health, yet the inactivation of spores is challenging due to their unique structures and chemical compositions. This study investigated the synergistic effect between surfactants and chlorine on the inactiva ...

2025

Machine learning method for the classification of the state of living organisms' oscillations

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba

The World Health Organization highlights the urgent need to address the global threat posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Efficient and rapid detection of bacterial response to antibiotics and their virulence state is crucial for the effective treatmen ...

Frontiers Media Sa2024

A simplified version of rapid susceptibility testing of bacteria and yeasts using optical nanomotion detection

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba, Sahand Jamal Rahi, Vojislav Gligorovski

We present a novel optical nanomotion-based rapid antibiotic and antifungal susceptibility test. The technique consisted of studying the effects of antibiotics or antifungals on the nanometric scale displacements of bacteria or yeasts to assess their sensi ...

Frontiers Media SA2024

An Optical Fiber-Based Nanomotion Sensor for Rapid Antibiotic and Antifungal Susceptibility Tests

Giovanni Dietler, Sandor Kasas, Serguei Sekatski, Anne-Céline Verenna Kohler, Jiangtao Zhou, María Inés Villalba, Leonardo Venturelli

The emergence of antibiotic and antifungal resistant microorganisms represents nowadays a major public health issue that might push humanity into a post-antibiotic/antifungal era. One of the approaches to avoid such a catastrophe is to advance rapid antibi ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Optical Nanomotion Detection to Rapidly Discriminate between Fungicidal and Fungistatic Effects of Antifungals on Single-Cell Candida albicans

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba

Candida albicans is an emerging pathogen that poses a significant challenge due to its multidrug-resistant nature. There are two types of antifungal agents, fungicidal and fungistatic, with distinct mechanisms of action against fungal pathogens. Fungicidal ...

MDPI AG2024

Simple optical nanomotion method for single-bacterium viability and antibiotic response testing

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba, Allan Bonvallat, Eugenia Rossetti

Antibiotic resistance is nowadays a major public health issue. Rapid antimicrobial susceptibility tests (AST) are one of the options to fight this deadly threat. Performing AST with single-cell sensitivity that is rapid, cheap, and widely accessible, is ch ...

National Academy of Sciences2023

Mechanical Properties and Nanomotion of BT-20 and ZR-75 Breast Cancer Cells Studied by Atomic Force Microscopy and Optical Nanomotion Detection Method

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba

Cells of two molecular genetic types of breast cancer-hormone-dependent breast cancer (ZR-75 cell line) and triple-negative breast cancer (BT-20 cell line)-were studied using atomic force microscopy and an optical nanomotion detection method. Using the Pea ...

MDPI2023

Modulation of the nanoscale motion rate of Candida albicans by X-rays

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba

IntroductionPatients undergoing cancer treatment by radiation therapy commonly develop Candida albicans infections (candidiasis). Such infections are generally treated by antifungals that unfortunately also induce numerous secondary effects in the patient. ...

Frontiers Media SA2023

Mitochondrial nanomotion measured by optical microscopy

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba, Priyanka Parmar

Nanometric scale size oscillations seem to be a fundamental feature of all living organisms on Earth. Their detection usually requires complex and very sensitive devices. However, some recent studies demonstrated that very simple optical microscopes and de ...

Frontiers Media SA2023

Single-Cell Optical Nanomotion of Candida albicans in Microwells for Rapid Antifungal Susceptibility Testing

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba

Candida albicans is an emerging multidrug-resistant opportunistic pathogen representing an important source of invasive disease in humans and generating high healthcare costs worldwide. The development of a rapid and simple antifungal susceptibility test ( ...

MDPI2023

The Dynamics of Single-Cell Nanomotion Behaviour of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a Microfluidic Chip for Rapid Antifungal Susceptibility Testing

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba

The fast emergence of multi-resistant pathogenic yeasts is caused by the extensive-and sometimes unnecessary-use of broad-spectrum antimicrobial drugs. To rationalise the use of broad-spectrum antifungals, it is essential to have a rapid and sensitive syst ...

MDPI2022

Effect of antibiotics on mechanical properties of Bordetella pertussis examined by atomic force microscopy

Giovanni Dietler, Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba, Leonardo Venturelli

In recent years, the coevolution of microorganisms with current antibiotics has increased the mechanisms of bacterial resistance, generating a major health problem worldwide. Bordetella pertussis is a bacterium that causes whooping cough and is capable of ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2022

Nanomechanical bio-sensing for fast and reliable detection of viability and susceptibility of microorganisms

Giovanni Dietler, Raphaël Foschia, Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba, Leonardo Venturelli

The metabolic activity of living organisms results in cellular motion on a nanometric scale that can be efficiently detected by micro- and nano- fabricated sensors. Quartz crystal microbalance and atomic force microscopy (AFM) inspired techniques have rece ...

2021

Nano-Motion Analysis for Rapid and Label Free Assessing of Cancer Cell Sensitivity to Chemotherapeutics

Sandor Kasas, Petar Stupar, María Inés Villalba

Background and Objectives: Optimization of chemotherapy is crucial for cancer patients. Timely and costly efficient treatments are emerging due to the increasing incidence of cancer worldwide. Here, we present a methodology of nano-motion analysis that cou ...

2021

Nanomotion Detection-Based Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing

Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba, Anton Malovichko

Rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) could play a major role in fighting multidrug-resistant bacteria. Recently, it was discovered that all living organisms oscillate in the range of nanometers and that these oscillations, referred to as nanomotio ...

2021

Nanomotion Spectroscopy as a New Approach to Characterize Bacterial Virulence

Giovanni Dietler, Sandor Kasas, Giovanni Longo, María Inés Villalba, Leonardo Venturelli

Atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based nanomotion detection is a label-free technique that has been used to monitor the response of microorganisms to antibiotics in a time frame of minutes. The method consists of attaching living organisms onto an AFM cantile ...

MDPI2021

A perspective view on the nanomotion detection of living organisms and its features

Giovanni Dietler, Sandor Kasas, Anne-Céline Verenna Kohler, Giovanni Longo, Massimiliano Bertacchi, Petar Stupar, María Inés Villalba, Leonardo Venturelli

The insurgence of newly arising, rapidly developing health threats, such as drug-resistant bacteria and cancers, is one of the most urgent public-health issues of modern times. This menace calls for the development of sensitive and reliable diagnostic tool ...

WILEY2020

Single yeast cell nanomotions correlate with cellular activity

Giovanni Dietler, Sandor Kasas, María Inés Villalba, Anton Malovichko

Living single yeast cells show a specific cellular motion at the nanometer scale with a magnitude that is proportional to the cellular activity of the cell. We characterized this cellular nanomotion pattern of nonattached single yeast cells using classical ...

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE2020

Nanomotion Detection Method for Testing Antibiotic Resistance and Susceptibility of Slow-Growing Bacteria

Giovanni Dietler, Sandor Kasas, Massimiliano Bertacchi, Petar Stupar, Wojciech Chomicki, María Inés Villalba

2018