Paper Sensor developed by IIT Madras can help to detect and monitor Anti-microbial pollutants!
Archa Harikumar H
Paper Sensor developed by IIT Madras | credits: IIT Madras
Researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and UK have developed a paper based sensor that can detect antimicrobial pollutants. This sensor will activate the antimicrobial resistance in water bodies thereby detecting pollutants.
"Laser Printed Microfluidic Paper - Based Analytical Sensors", is the name given to the sensor. This sensor is mainly based on ‘see and tell’ mechanism which makes it logically efficient for wide implementation. It can detect antimicrobials in the parts per million range. It assists the policymakers in finding solutions for tackling the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) challenges as it helps to understand the relationship between AMR and AMR-triggering pollutants. Sensors fuse absorption-based pre-concentration using reagents that go through a measurable colour change enabled parts per billion level detection of pollutants.
The sensor is of low cost and field deployable, hence it is expected to be a workable tool for environmental surveillance and detecting pollutants in water bodies. The Scientific Community is concentrating on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), which can cause worldwide health crises involving dangerous pathogens. Water resources are the major source of circulation and transfer of AMR. Periodic checking of antimicrobial pollutants and antibiotic resistant genes is the password to assess the present situation of AMR in India. These sensors can be used for environmental monitoring, food safety analysis and healthcare monitoring.
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According to the World Health Organization(WHO), antimicrobial resistance intimidates the effective prevention and treatment of an increasing range of infections induced by bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. It happens, when the microbes like bacteria, viruses and fungi are no longer responding to medicines, thus making these infections much harder to treat.
It was funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India in bilateral collaboration with the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the ‘Indo-UK water Quality Research Programme'. The research for the sensor was led by Professor S. Pushpavanam, Institute Chair Professor and Dr T Renganathan, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras.
On Tuesday, Dr.T.Renganathan, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, in a press release, stated that they have used these fabricated devices (the sensors) for detecting antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, biocides like triclosan and also for heavy metals such as chromium, copper and lead. This sensor can be used for the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in water bodies.