Development of innovative biosensors for biochemical oxygen demand and E. coli

我们将利用微生物电化学电池（MECs）原理开发创新的生物传感器，用于测量生化需氧量（BOD）浓度和枚举水和废水中活大肠杆菌的数量。目前大肠杆菌BOD测量和计数方法依赖于培养技术，这是周期性的，劳动密集型的，昂贵的。新的基于mec的BOD传感器将针对合成废水和真实废水进行设计和优化。通过滑铁卢大学和OZ Optics有限公司的合作，BOD传感器的原型将在废水处理设施和湖泊中进行测试。实地试验将使我们能够评估生化需氧量传感器对水和废水中水质参数波动的灵敏度和准确性。同时，一种用于计数活大肠杆菌的创新生物传感器将被设计和测试，以证明一个假设，即mec中的电流可以代表活大肠杆菌的数量。本次研究的成功使我们能够以半连续的方式（每小时收集一次数据）监测水和废水中的BOD浓度和活大肠杆菌数量，这将大大改善加拿大现有的水质监测系统，有助于保护水资源和人类健康免受污染物的侵害。

We will develop innovative biosensors using principles of microbial electrochemical cells (MECs) for measuring biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) concentration and enumerating the number of live E. coli in water and wastewater. Current methods for BOD measurement and enumeration of E. coli depend on culturing techniques, which are periodic, labour-intensive, and expensive. New MEC-based BOD sensors will be designed and optimized for synthetic and real wastewater. A prototype of the BOD sensors will be tested in wastewater treatment facilities and lakes through collaborations of the University of Waterloo and OZ Optics, Ltd. Field tests will allow us to assess the sensitivity and accuracy of the BOD sensors to fluctuations of water quality parameters in water and wastewater. In parallel, an innovative biosensor for counting live E. coli will be designed and tested to prove a hypothesis that electric current in MECs can represent the number of live E. coli. The success of the proposed research enables us to monitor BOD concentration and the number of live E. coli in water and wastewater as semi-continuous manners (data collection at every hour), which will significantly improve current water quality monitoring systems and help protection of water resources and human health against contaminants for Canada.