2019 | Israel | Marva Pistinner

Development of a Novel Bio-Reporter for Monitoring Wastewater Quality

Water issue adressed: Too dirty

Monitoring genotoxic materials (which alter genes) in the environment is crucial for public health. The traditional methods to monitor these substances are expensive and complicated. This research project presents a novel and sensitive bio-reporter based on genetically engineered bacteria for monitoring genotoxic substances in wastewater.

The biosensor is composed of the umuD promotor (a part of the bacterial DNA correction system called SOS) which responds to DNA damage, coupled to a reporter gene that produces a measurable light signal.

This sensor was tested in the form of a chip (which can be conveniently applied in the field) while the bacteria were exposed to different concentrations of known genotoxic substances as well as to real wastewater samples. In both cases, the bacteria emitted a measurable signal which can be used for detection of genetoxics.

This is how I came up with the idea for this project:

To be continued

“Development of a Novel Bio-Reporter for Monitoring Wastewater Quality”

CONTACT WATERTANK

Ania Andersch

Programme manager ania.andersch@siwi.org +46 8 121 360 59