On-Line, Near Real Time Water Security BioMonitoring System

We propose to develop an innovative biosensor system for near real time, on-line monitoring of water for the presence of pathogens and biotoxins. The proposed optical biosensing approach possesses a unique combination of features that make it ideal for meeting the requirements of a water analysis system. Notably. 1) it does not require the use of labels for detection (such as fluorescent, enzymatic or radioactive tags); this enables easy automation of immunoassays and direct real time detection of analyte, and 2) it is microarray based, thus providing for highly parallel detection of multiple analytes, including viruses, bacteria, spores, and biotoxins, which is critical to successfully cope with the variety of potential threats. We anticipate that the system will proved continuous monitoring with a sampling period of less than 1 hour and with a limit of detection for bacteria of the order of 1 organism per mL. Potential commercial applications include: environmental water testing and water supply security, biodefense and homeland defense, biomedical research, clinical diagnostics, agricultural bioterrorism, food safety testing, and envionrmental contamination and remediaton.