Low-cost sensor could detect contaminated water in developing nations

Low-cost sensor could detect contaminated water in developing nations.

An interdisciplinary team of nine students is participating in the 2012 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition – a prestigious global event that challenges students to design and build simple biological systems made from standard, interchangeable parts. "We are developing a biosensor that will detect pathogenic bacteria, such as Shigella, Salmonella and E. coli, that cause diarrhoea," said Ryan Muller, an undergraduate student in at the university's School of Life Sciences. "Ideally, you would use our biosensor to check different water supplies in third world countries to determine whether the water is safe to drink." The team is working on two designs. "The first one targets DNA," explained Muller. "Since each type of pathogen has different DNA, we want to create complementary sequences – sequences that match a specific DNA. We will take bacterial...

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