About the Authors

Tonya M. Santaus

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, United States of America, Institute of Fluorescence, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, United States of America

Shan Li

Roles Data curation, Investigation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Epidemiology and Public Health Department, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States of America

Lahari Saha

Roles Data curation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, United States of America

Wilbur H. Chen

Roles Data curation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States of America

Siya Bhagat

Roles Data curation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, United States of America

O. Colin Stine

Roles Funding acquisition, Investigation, Project administration, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Epidemiology and Public Health Department, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States of America

Chris D. Geddes

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

geddes@umbc.edu

Affiliations Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, United States of America, Institute of Fluorescence, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, United States of America

Competing Interests

This work is supported by the UMBC-UMB Cholera joint training grant and the National Institutes of Health UMBC Graduate Training Chemistry Biology Interface Fellowship (T32GM066706-15). We note that the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) has filed and has had issued several patents related to microwave-based lysing and DNA fragmentation. Those patents are licensed to Lyse-It LLC, a Maryland-based biotechnology company to which Dr. Geddes currently owns stock. Patent #: US US9500590B2. “Assays for pathogen detection using microwaves for lysing and accelerating metal-enhanced fluorescence”, Chris D. Geddes. Patent #: US10294451B2 “Flow and static lysing systems and methods for ultra-rapid isolation and fragmentation of biological materials by microwave irradiation”, Chris D. Geddes. Lyse-It LLC was not involved in the study design of the material within this paper,nor do any of the author receive any salaries or consultancies from Lyse-It LLC.