Point-of-need molecular biomonitoring of aquatic species - Phase IIa

开发项目的环境许可证需要进行环境影响评估（EIA）。这部分是因为对濒危物种（SAR）及其栖息地的潜在影响。环境影响评估要求环境顾问评估在开发现场可能受到损害的SAR的存在。由于SAR是罕见的，他们是困难的，耗时和昂贵的检测使用传统的基于视觉的方法。它们可能造成环境影响评估和相关发展项目的编制工作出现代价高昂的延误。值得注意的是，水生生物将DNA释放到水中，这种环境（eDNA）信号可以使用分子方法检测，而不需要对所讨论的物种进行物理观察。这种对水样进行分析的能力，而不是部署现场工作人员从事更耗时和劳动密集型的检测方法，对环境咨询业来说是一种有吸引力的技术，并且具有不会对SAR造成压力或死亡的额外好处。采用这项新技术的一个主要障碍是将样本送到中心实验室的成本高，而且延迟时间长，实验室使用的是由训练有素的人员操作的昂贵设备。此外，由于eDNA信号快速劣化，因此可能由样品劣化导致误差，这降低了信号质量。精确、简单易用且价格低廉的需求点（PON）平台满足了关键的市场需求。在第一阶段的工作中，我们提出并成功地开发了一个快速，灵敏，特定，低成本和简单易用的PON平台，以填补这一空白。它为环境生物学家带来了分子诊断的力量，就在这个领域。我们提供简单、无需实验室的分子检测，可在具有移动的连接的手持式DNA扩增仪器上运行。这些新的分子检测方法易于使用，不需要任何复杂的样品制备。PON平台避免了使用由训练有素的人员操作的昂贵设备将样品发送到中心实验室的高成本和长时间延迟。移动的数据功能有助于报告结果。我们的端到端测试可在2小时内现场完成。

Environmental permits to start development projects require an Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). This is in part because of the potential impacts on species-at-risk (SAR) and their habitat. An EIA requires an environmental consultant to assess the presence of SAR that may be harmed at the development site. Because SAR are rare, they are difficult, time consuming and expensive to detect using traditional visual-based methods. They can cause costly delays in the preparation of EIAs and related development projects. Notably, aquatic organisms shed DNA into the water and this environmental (eDNA) signal can be detected using molecular methods that do not require physical observation of the species in question. This ability to perform an assay on a water sample rather than deploying field crews to engage in more time consuming and labour intensive methods of detection represents an attractive technology for the environmental consulting industry and has the added benefit of not inducing stress or mortality on SAR. A major barrier to adoption of this new technology is the high costs and long delays of sending samples to a central lab using expensive equipment operated by highly-trained personnel. In addition, as the eDNA signal degrades quickly, errors may result from specimen degradation which reduces the signal quality. A point-of-need (PON) platform that is accurate, simple to use and inexpensive fills a crucial market need. In the phase I work, we proposed and succeeded in developing a fast, sensitive, specific, low cost and simple-to-use PON platform to fill that gap. It brings the power of molecular diagnostic to environmental biologists, right in the field. We provide simple, lab-free molecular assays that run on a handheld DNA amplification instrument with mobile connectivity. These new molecular assays are easy to use and don't require any complicated sample preparation. The PON platform avoids the high costs and long delays of sending samples to a central lab using expensive equipment operated by highly-trained personnel. The mobile data feature facilitates reporting of results. Our end-to-end tests can be completed on-site under 2 hours.