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DOE Pulse
  • Number 407  |
  • February 17, 2014

A cool glass of clean drinking water

On the left, a graphic demonstrating how droplets of oil move through ScanDrop’s microfluidic chip. On the right, the arrows indicate single bacteria cells inside a droplet of oil.

On the left, a graphic demonstrating how
droplets of oil move through ScanDrop’s
microfluidic chip. On the right, the arrows
indicate single bacteria cells inside a
droplet of oil.

Researchers from DOE’s Berkeley Lab, the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and the Joint Genome Institute and Northeastern University (NEU) and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School (MGH/HMS) have developed a portable, network-enabled system for testing drinking water contamination that could revolutionize how pathogens in drinking water are identified. The system, called ScanDrop, developed by Tania Konry’s group at NEU/MGH/HMS, uses droplet-based microfluidics technology and bead-based assay technologies with integrated portable optics to detect bacteria in water.  This ScanDrop system was combined with automated microscope control software (PR-PR) and cloud-based networking, developed by Nathan Hillson’s group at JBEI/JGI, to scan water samples for pathogens and transmit the data remotely Currently, it takes several days in the laboratory to test drinking water supplies for disease-causing pathogens. ScanDrop serves as a proof-of-concept for a method of testing for pathogens in drinking water that is faster than current options and cheap enough that it could be deployed in many poor countries. The system could also potentially be set up to test for several pathogens at once or to test for other kinds of contaminants, including environmental sampling for bacteria that impact the global carbon cycle or are used for bioremediation. Full story (http://jginews.blogspot.com/2014/02/doe-science-highlights-cool-glass-of.html)

[Lynn Yarris, 510.486.5375,
lcyarris@lbl.gov]