Acronym BRAAVOO
Category
Marine Biotechnology
Title Biosensors for real time monitoring of biohazard and man made chemical contaminants in the marine environment Programme FP7
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
FP7 - Collaborative Project (generic)
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
KBBE – Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology
Specific Programme (FP7)
Cooperation
Funding source European Coordinator Jan Roelof van der Meer Coordinator email JanRoelof.VanDerMeer@unil.ch
Coordinator institution
UNIL - University of Lausanne (Switzerland)
Institutions involved
NA - Biosensor srl (Italy) ,
HUJI - Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) ,
NA - IDS Monitoring Ltd (Ireland) ,
NA - LioniX International BV (Netherlands) ,
microTEC - microTEC Society for Microtechnology mbH (Germany) ,
CNR - National Research Council (Italy) ,
NA - Sciprom (Switzerland) ,
CSIC - Spanish National Research Council (Spain) ,
Start year 2013 End year 2016 Funding (€) € 4,564,917 Website www.braavoo.org Summary BRAAVOO aims to develop innovative solutions for real-time in-situ measurements of high impact and difficult to measure marine pollutants. The concept of BRAAVOO is based on a unique combination of three types of biosensors, which will enable both the detection of a number of specific marine priority pollutants as well as of general biological effects that can be used for early warning. First, innovative bimodal evanescent waveguide nanoimmuno-sensors will enable label-free antibody-based detection of organohalogens, antibiotics, or algal toxins. Secondly, bacterial bioreporters producing autofluorescent proteins in response to chemical exposure will enable direct detection of alkanes or PAHs from oil, heavy metals, or antibiotics, and can further assess the general toxicity of the water sample. Finally, the photosystem activity of marine algae is exploited to monitor changes induced by toxic compounds.
BRAAVOO will construct and rigorously test the three biosensor systems for their analytical performance to
the targeted pollutants. To enable low-cost real-time measurements, the three biosensors will be miniaturized, multiplexed and integrated into innovative modules, which allow simultaneous multianalyte detection. The modules will include all optical elements for biosensor signal generation and readout, the microelectronics for data storage, and specific microfluidics to embed the biosensors or cells, and expose them to aqueous samples from dedicated autosamplers. The modules can be used either as stand-alone instruments for specific marine applications or can operate autonomously and in real-time in an integrated form. Hereto, they will be embedded in a marine buoy and an unmanned surveying vessel. Vessels and stand-alone biosensor modules will be tested extensively and in comparative fashion on real marine samples and in mesocosms. If successful, the flexible and innovative BRAAVOO solutions will democratize and revolutionize marine environmental monitoring.
Keywords
Technology;
Toxic substances;
Biosensors;
Monitoring;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
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