Integrated Geo-Environmental Immunoassay Insitu Soil Probe for Subsurface Characterization

This research program seeks to develop an innovative and cost-effective in situ geo-environmental immunoassay technique (i) combined in a small, hydraulically driven geotechnical soil probe (e.g. BAT or mini cone, etc.) to detect, characterize, map and quantify, in real-time, the type, extent, and concentration of priority subsurface contaminants by chemical specificity, as well as, (ii) provide geological characteristics such as hydraulic conductivity, porosity grain size etc. The prime advantage of the proposed in situ geo-environmental immunoassay technique is that specific antibodies could be engineered to detect specific contaminants of interest in the subsurface. When the contaminants come into contact with the immunoassay sensor module (which consists an array of suitable immobilized antibodies, analytes coupled with fluorescent/color producing molecules, for example), the response could be detected via fiber optic cables that can transmit the elicited colorimetric or fluorometric reaction to a recording device. The signals thus received and other geotechnical instrumentation response will be processed in real-time, and interpreted to predict geo-environmental conditions, nature and quantity of contaminants present as well as geological characteristics. Currently on-going preliminary studies being conducted by this research team indicate high potential for success of this new approach to identify several priority contaminants at very low concentrations. The Phase I of this work plan seeks to design, and develop a miniaturized sensor module combined in a small soil probe based on the above concept and evaluate its effectiveness. The results of this study will prove the feasibility of the concept and produce quantitative data on effectiveness of the sensor and its system characteristics. The necessary data acquisition, signal processing technologies and schemes for real-time quantitative interpretation and display of results on a remote computer screen (or storage) will be developed as a part of this effort.