SEA-PUR: A New Platform for Improved Microplastic Contamination Surveillance

MicroplasticMPpollutants ofnm tomm diameter are rapidly emerging as a consequence of our ubiquitous dependence on plasticsMPs are now routinely found in sea and fresh waterfood and beveragesas well as intestinal tracts of fish and mammalsPublic awareness of the problem is growing with an increasing frequency of reports in academic journals and popular mediabut the development of standards and acceptable pollutant limits has been hampered for several reasonsMost notablylack of affordable and standardized isolation protocols have made it impractical to conduct widespread surveillance of environmental MP levelsthus determining the health consequences of MP exposure has been limitedConsequentlyregulatory and standards bodiesEPANSF ANSIare hesitant to define MP contamination limitsWe believe this dilemma can be broken with new easy to use MP isolation productsBuilding on itsyear track record of marketing lab productsSiMPore will develop new MP isolation productsthe SEA PURMP isolation kitthat are based on its world leading silicon nanomembranesThese products will rely upon the high permeabilityoptical transparencyand plastic free background properties of silicon microslit nanomembranes to enable the easy isolation and chemical identification of environmental MPsDuring thismonth SBIR projectwe will develop a minimum viable product that will enable researchers to isolate MPs by size and determine particle concentration by imaging filtercaptured MPs retained on the membranesUsing lab prepared and environmental sampleswe will optimize a usage protocol involving peroxidation base digestionfollowed by Nyle red staining of surviving MPsfor easy fluorescent imaging and MP countingWe will demonstrate that silicon microslit nanomembranes enable plastic free spectroscopic chemical fingerprinting of MPsusing a range of Raman and FTIR microscopy systems and a variety of MP typesWe will further demonstrate utility by sending product prototypes toDrBelinda SturmU Kansasfor MP testing using samples from a nationwide collection of effluent from waste water treatment plantsandMP testing in water samples collected throughout western NY by local high school students participating in the URochester s Life Science Learning Center s programsSubcontractors at URochester will also use isolated MP environmental samples and develop a protocol for transferring these MPs into proof of concept toxicological studies using an in vitro model of intestinal absorptionCacobarrier modelsMicroplasticMPpollutants ofnm tomm are now routinely found in sea and fresh waterfood and beveragesas well as intestinal tracts of fish and mammalsThe lack of affordable and standardized isolation protocols have made it impractical to conduct widespread surveillance of environmental MP levels and determine the consequences for human healthThis Phase I SBIR project will use SiMPore s silicon based membrane filters to make precise but low cost toolkit for MP isolation