Project: Portable biosensor coupled with a sampling drone for the in situ assessment of seawater toxicity

Acronym	MOBILTOX (Reference Number: MarTERA-2020_35)
Duration	01/10/2021 - 30/09/2024
Project Topic	The preservation of the oceans is a major issue of the 21st century. In this context, the European Union is committed to protecting our seas and oceans, as indicated in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Despite this, there is today a significant lack of methods aimed at qualifying its environments, and in particular with regard to the impact of pollutants on marine ecosystems. The aim of MOBILTOX project is to contribute to this effort by providing a mobile platform for the in situ assessment of water toxicity as an early-warning system. The platform will combine two analysis complementary modules (biosensors) relying on biological indicators and a sampling drone. The first sensing module is based on whole microbial cells as indicator of overall toxicity (approach based on inhibition of respiratory activity - fluorescent sensors). It will be used to determine the toxicity level caused by the pollutants mixtures in the studied environments (harbours, coastal areas, etc.). This first analysis level will provide information about the overall quality of the environment (the aim is not to detect specific toxic compounds). The choice of the biological indicator is crucial, therefore the cells will be isolated from the targeted environments (coastal area, harbors, mouth of rivers such as the Danube (Romania) or the Loire (France)) in order to ensure a good representativeness of the information collected by this first approach. The second module aims to detect specific groups of contaminants (inhibitors of photosynthesis such as herbicides and metals - main marine pollutants from run-off from agricultural land and industrial activities) via inhibition of photosystem II (PSII) complexes immobilized on electrodes (PSII-inhibition sensor). A preliminary step will be dedicated to identifying of best suitable phototrophic microorganisms owning enzymatic complex likely to be used in this context.
Website	visit project website
Network	MarTERA
Call	MarTERA Call 2020

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	Laboratoire GEPEA	Coordinator	France
2	International Centre of Biodynamics	Partner	Romania
3	Institute of Biology Bucharest of the Romanian Academy	Partner	Romania
4	Heliceo	Partner	France