Potentially
fatal to both animals and humans, blue-green algae blooms occur when
overly-abundant cyanobacteria in the water produce harmful substances
known as cyanotoxins. The sooner those toxins are detected, the better –
which is where a new smartphone-connected device comes into the
picture.
Ordinarily,
when officials are checking for the early signs of algae blooms in
lakes or rivers, they take water samples that have to be sent off to a
lab. By the time those samples have been analyzed, the bloom may have
already reached the stage where the public should have been alerted.
Led
by Asst. Prof. Qingshan Wei, scientists at North Carolina State
University set out to make earlier warnings possible, producing what is
being called the world's first portable cyanotoxin-detection system.
Users simply place a drop of water on a chip, which is then inserted
into a reader device that is in turn mounted to a smartphone.
The chip is preloaded with single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) dyes combined with molecules known as aptamers.
These bind with any target molecules that may be present in a sample,
causing them to fluoresce. As a result, within just five minutes, an app
on the phone is able to alert users to the presence and levels of four
common types of cyanotoxins – anatoxin-a, cylindrospermopsin, nodularin
and microcystin-LR.
"Our
technology is capable of detecting these toxins at the levels EPA
[Environmental Protection Agency] laid out in its water quality
criteria," says Wei. "However, it's important to note that our
technology is not yet capable of detecting these cyanotoxins at levels
as low as the World Health Organization's drinking water limit. So,
while this is a useful environmental monitoring tool, and can be used to
assess recreational water quality, it is not yet viable for assessing
drinking water safety."
The researchers are now working on boosting the system's sensitivity, so that it can
be used to determine if water is safe to drink. They also state that if
produced at a commercial scale, the reader device should be relatively
inexpensive – it currently costs less than US$70 to manufacture, with
the chips coming in at under a dollar each.
Source: North Carolina State Universit
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