Project 7 – RAISE Spoke 3

Technologically assisted ecotoxicological tools

BIological early warning systems (EWS) are devices based on biological components (i.e. whole cells, organisms) that sense a signal and generate real-time detectable and quantifiable responses to environmental stressors, such as the presence of contaminants. In the frame of the Spoke 3, CNR-IAS has contributed to develop three monitoring EWS in the project 7:

“Smart biosensor based on biofilm growth alteration as a warning system for aquatic pollution” (Product 7.1)
“System able to record motion of invertebrates adult organisms as indicator of pollution stress and toxicity in the aquatic environment” (Product 7.2 )
“Automatic swimming behaviour recorder for laboratory/in-field alarm of water pollution detection by using planktonic organisms” (Product 7.3)

The development of three EWS in the frame of the project 7 provided easy-to-use, fast and cost effective complementary tools that could be very useful for providing a rapid response, in terms of biological functions (i.e. electrochemical activity, behaviour), to the contaminants in the aquatic environments at concentrations which would be of immediate threat to living organisms.

Product 7.1 Smart biosensor based on biofilm growth alteration as a warning system for aquatic pollution

The product consists in an innovative smart biofilm-based biosensor, design to detect biofilm electrochemical activity and proposed as a real-time biological early warning system (EWS) for in-field marine monitoring. In the first year of activity, we correlated changes in biofilm electrochemical activity with the presence of contaminants through experiments conducted under semi-field conditions …

Product 7.2 System able to record motion of invertebrates adult organisms as indicator of pollution stress and toxicity in the aquatic environment

An artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology designed to automate the monitoring of behavioural responses in marine invertebrates was developed. By reducing manual analysis and bias, an AI-system may significantly accelerate the monitoring process while improving measurement consistency …

Product 7.3 Automatic swimming behavior recorder for laboratory/in-field alarm of water pollution detection by using planktonic organisms

The proposed product will consist in a device able to automatically record swimming behaviour of aquatic organisms (specifically planktonic organisms) as an “early warning system” device for environmental monitoring, to be used in laboratory assessment of water samples or directly in the field.