Industrial application

In this section of the wiki, we present how we consider the design of our device and discuss realistic application. To learn more about the market expectations, we met a safety official of ARKEMA.

Design of Mercuro-Coli device

Our objective is to design a device for the detection and quantification of heavy metal pollution in a given sample. Our final device is intended to sense mercury, but for practical reasons, we mainly work with a harmless molecule as a proof of concept: anhydrotetracyclin. One should notice that most of the elements in the design of our device and genetic network would not change whatever the chemical that we could want to quantify.

The device presented here take into account the information provided by modelling results. The device we conceived is rectangular shape, thin, light and very cheap. It is made of machined polycarbonate. Vertical channels are engraved in the plastic.

In each channel there is specific chemical environnement. A range of IPTG concentration is set on the device.

To use the device we just have to spread poluted water on it and wait for the result. Below is an illustration of how we observe results using the measurement device. One channel become red, the location give us the amount of mercury in the water.

A sample preparation phase is needed. In fact mercury is generally not in ionic form in nature. It's generally complexed with others ions or for much of the amount of mercury it forms organometalics compound. It is because some bacteria metabolize Hg 2+ and transform it in methyl-mercury. This organic compound is eaten by fish. And fish is eaten by men. That's why mercury is so poisonous.

The device is disposable. Once the test is performed, autoclave the device to sterilize it.

Meeting at ARKEMA and lab's visits