Environmental Monitoring and Biosensors
On site biological sensing for aquatic pollutants and biohazards.
AquaBioSens develops handheld devices to measure aquatic hazards and pollution, supporting the EU Mission to “Restore our ocean and waters by 2030”. The devices use novel analytics, such as immunoassays, environmental RNA quantification, and whole cell biosensors, coupled with advanced sensors, such as acoustic biosensors, fluorimetry, and organ-on-chip devices. The devices are low-cost, accessible, and connected to the web. They will be tested and validated in coastal and freshwater sites in the UK, Ireland, and Greece, and disseminated to the international community. AquaBioSens aims to commercialize the new technologies.
The project at Southampton is in collaboration with Prof Hywel Morgan (School of Electronics and Computer Science). The aim is to adapt the lung epithelial barrier on chip system developed in the Morgan lab for the fish gill cell culutre system (FIGCS). To generate an organ-on-chip device to measure real-time barrier permeability and gill cell repsonses to metals in the marine environment.