Rodriguez Padilla, Katerin

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    Characterization of an automated, portable, and reusable enterococcus faecalis biosensor for beach water quality.
    (2019-12-10) Rodriguez Padilla, Katerin; Resto-Irizarry, Pedro J.; College of Engineering; Quintero, Pedro O.; Serrano, Guillermo; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Morell-Rodríguez, Julio M.
    Recreational water-quality monitoring requires measurements of enterococcus bacteria concentrations in 100-milliliter water samples. Lab-on-a-chip biosensors are an alternative tool to accomplish effective sensing, with increased portability, reduced costs, and automation. The EPA has a list of approved methods for water-quality assurance, including enzyme-based defined-substrate methods for the detection of enterococci concentrations in water. The main objectives of this research project are for the characterization and improvement of a biosensor for the in-situ detection of Enterococcus faecalis bacteria using a commercially available enzymatic assay, a microfluidic device, and open-source materials and software tools. Experiments identified the main factors that affected the biosensor functioning and include studies of the incubation process, cross-contamination and wash-out bacteria enrichment and growth. The custom-made hardware and software are optimized to provide high-quality bacteria incubation data over a 24-hour period and is capable of high-frequency measurements. Our results show the ability to measure water-quality in an automated fashion with positive results measured within the first few hours of incubation.