Rapid, Portable Detection of Coliforms and E. coli. in Drinking Water

The overall goal of this SBIR effort is to develop a rapid, portable system to test for presence and viability of coliform bacteria and E. coli in field water samples. The end system will be portable, battery-powered, reusable, easy to use, and selective to the specific indicator organism. The specific R&D objectives of Phase I are to (i) advance recent breakthrough technologies developed by the University of Florida from TRL 2 up to TRL 4, (ii) design a complete system for development during Phase II, and (iii) execute commercialization activities in preparation to bring this technology to the market. The proposed water monitoring system leverages two emergent technologies developed at the University of Florida that have independently developed for biosensing applications. The unifying goal of the Phase I effort is to combine these approaches to detect the presence and viability of coliform bacteria and E. coli. The combination of highly selective capture-probe-functionalized microdiscs, magnetic pre-concentration, viability assay, and a portable microscopy system are expected to significantly improve measurement time, sensitivity, and viability discrimination compared to other competing technologies