A Miniaturized Microbe-Silicon-Chip Based on Bioluminescent Engineered for the Evaluation of Water Quality and Safety.
Emanuele Luigi Sciuto, Domenico Corso, Sebania Libertino, Jan Roelof van der Meer, Giuseppina Faro, Maria Anna Coniglio
Author Information
Emanuele Luigi Sciuto: Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Policlinico "G. Rodolico-San Marco", Via S. Sofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italy. ORCID
Domenico Corso: Istituto per la Microelettronica e Microsistemi-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR-IMM), Ottava Strada 5, 95121 Catania, Italy.
Sebania Libertino: Istituto per la Microelettronica e Microsistemi-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR-IMM), Ottava Strada 5, 95121 Catania, Italy. ORCID
Jan Roelof van der Meer: Department of Fundamental Microbiology, Bâtiment Biophore, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Giuseppina Faro: Azienda Sanitaria Provinciale di Catania, Via S. Maria La Grande 5, 95124 Catania, Italy.
Maria Anna Coniglio: Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Policlinico "G. Rodolico-San Marco", Via S. Sofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italy. ORCID
Conventional high throughput methods assaying the chemical state of water and the risk of heavy metal accumulation share common constraints of long and expensive analytical procedures and dedicated laboratories due to the typical bulky instrumentation. To overcome these limitations, a miniaturized optical system for the detection and quantification of inorganic mercury (Hg) in water was developed. Combining the bioactivity of a light-emitting mercury-specific engineered -used as sensing element-with the optical performance of small size and inexpensive Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM)-used as detector-the system is able to detect mercury in low volumes of water down to the concentration of 1 µg L, which is the tolerance value indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO), providing a highly sensitive and miniaturized tool for in situ water quality analysis.
