A miniature sensor integrating multiple detection technologies for evaluating water pollution

发达国家和发展中国家都迫切需要一种便携式系统来监测水质。目前，没有商业测试可以满足这一需求，因为只有经认可的实验室才能进行这种评估。传统的物理化学技术，如层析，必须由合格的技术人员进行，并且需要大型、笨重和昂贵的设备。此外，分析仪器的小型化是化学和生物科学的主导趋势之一。诊断设备的小型化不仅提供了便携性和显著的成本降低，而且在速度、分析效率、自动化和重复性方面也获得了性能上的提高。通过微型化，微流控技术可以成功地将所有相关步骤集成到一个设备上。 为了解决这一问题，我们开发了一个基于微流控平台的浮游植物(藻类和蓝藻)检测系统。藻类和蓝藻是天然的生物传感器，因为它们将化合物混合物的生物效应整合到它们的环境中，并对与潜在毒性效应相关的代谢变化做出反应。在基于浮游植物的传感器中，生物体的反应是通过各种检测机制实时测量的，这些检测机制可以是光学的、化学的或电的。 近年来，我们课题组展示了有机光电器件与微流控相结合应用于藻类和蓝藻生物传感器的巨大潜力，我们希望通过这个项目来利用这些进展。 该项目的主要目标将是模拟、制造、测试和包装用于浮游植物化学物种检测的完全集成的示范原型生物传感器，该传感器将用于吸引潜在合作伙伴的兴趣，以便进一步开发和随后实现商业化。

There exists an urgent and great need for a portable system to monitor water quality in both developed and developing countries. Currently, there is no commercial test available to satisfy this demand, as only accredited laboratories can perform such evaluations. Conventional physicochemical techniques like chromatography must be performed by qualified technicians, and require large, bulky and expensive equipment. Moreover, miniaturisation of analytical instrumentation is one of dominant trends within the chemical and biological sciences. Miniaturization of diagnostic devices not only affords portability and significant cost reductions but also performance gains in terms of speed, analytical efficiency, automation and reproducibility. Through miniaturization, microfluidic technologies may allow successful integration of all the relevant steps on a single device. In order to solve this problem we have developed a phytoplankton (alga and cyanobacteria) based detection system implemented in a microfluidic platform. Algae and cyanobacteria are natural biosensors, since they integrate the biological effects of the compound mixtures in their environment and respond by metabolic changes that are relevant to potential toxic effects. In phytoplankton-based sensors, the organism responses are measured in real time by various detection mechanisms that can be optical, chemical or electrical in nature. In recent years, our group has showed the enormous potential of the combining of organic optoelectronic devices with microfluidic applied to toxicity measurement biosensor based on algae and cyanobacteria and we want to capitalize on those developments though this project. The primary objective of the project will be then to model, fabricate, test and package a fully integrated demonstration prototype biosensor for the phytoplankton based detection of chemical species, which will be used to attract the interest of potential partners for further development and subsequently for commercialization.