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

启动开发项目的环境许可证需要环境影响评估(EIA)。这在一定程度上是因为对濒危物种及其栖息地的潜在影响。环境影响评估要求环境顾问评估发展地点是否存在可能受到损害的特别行政区。由于SAR是稀有的，使用传统的基于视觉的方法检测它们是困难的、耗时的和昂贵的。它们可能会导致环境影响评估和相关发展项目的准备工作出现代价高昂的延误。值得注意的是，水生生物将DNA排放到水中，这种环境(EDNA)信号可以使用不需要对相关物种进行物理观察的分子方法来检测。这种对水样进行化验的能力，而不是派遣现场工作人员从事更耗时和劳动密集型的检测方法，对于环境咨询行业来说是一项有吸引力的技术，而且还有一个额外的好处，即不会对SAR造成压力或死亡。采用这项新技术的一个主要障碍是，使用由训练有素的人员操作的昂贵设备将样本送到中央实验室的成本很高，而且拖延时间很长。此外，由于EDNA信号迅速退化，样品退化可能会导致误差，从而降低信号质量。准确、使用简单、价格低廉的PON平台满足了关键的市场需求。在第一阶段的工作中，我们提出并成功开发了一个快速、灵敏、特定、低成本和简单易用的PON平台来填补这一空白。它将分子诊断的力量带给了环境生物学家，就在这个领域。我们提供简单、无需实验室的分子分析，可在可移动连接的手持DNA扩增仪上运行。这些新的分子分析方法简单易用，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本发送到中心实验室的高成本和长时间延迟。移动数据功能有助于报告结果。我们的端到端测试可以在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.