WaterNew technology to detect previously undetectable fecal contamination in water
Technology capable of sampling water systems to find indicators of fecal matter contamination that are thousandths and even millionths of times smaller than those found by conventional methods is being developed by researchers. The researchers have developed an ultrasensitive detection method that can detect molecules associated with human and animal fecal matter in water systems. These extremely small indicators, he explains, have been traditionally difficult to detect but can signal greater levels of contamination, which can lead to illness and even death.
Technology capable of sampling water systems to find indicators of fecal matter contamination that are thousandths and even millionths of times smaller than those found by conventional methods is being developed by a team of researchers at Texas A&M University.
Working with a team of collaborators, Vladislav Yakovlev, professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, has developed an ultrasensitive detection method that can detect molecules associated with human and animal fecal matter in water systems. These extremely small indicators, he explains, have been traditionally difficult to detect but can signal greater levels of contamination, which can lead to illness and even death.
A Texas A&M release reports that the team’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation and is featured in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It details the development of technology that Yakovlev characterizes as affordable, highly sensitive, easy to implement and capable of delivering analysis of water samples in real time. That combination of benefits, he says, gives the system a leg up on other detection technologies, making it ideal for use not only in the United States but in developing countries, which often face water quality issues.
At home and abroad, animal and human waste can contaminate both recreational and source waters, carrying with diseases such as polio, typhoid, and cholera. This form of contamination can even result in environmental crises, such as devastation to the aquatic population and red-tide blooms. Yakovlev notes. These types of contamination events, Yakovlev explains, might be mitigated or even avoided if samples from water systems are more thoroughly analyzed so that they can provide a better picture of what is in the water. In other words, finding trace amounts of contaminants such as fecal matter in water systems can help sound the alarm for a serious contamination event because these trace amounts likely originate from a larger source in the water system, he notes.
Detecting these trace amounts, however, is not easy, especially in a timely manner, Yakovlev says. High costs, sample-size limitations and lengthy analysis times, he notes, have prevented environmental researchers from employing highly sensitive techniques that can deliver real-time analysis — until now.
