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PlomBOX: a low cost bioassay for the sensitive detection of lead in drinking water

Abstract:
This paper reports the design of a biosensor for sensitive, low-cost measurement of lead in drinking water. The biosensor uses a genetically-modified strain of Escherichia coli, which serves as both signal amplifier and reporter of lead in water, measured via colour change. We developed the PlomBOX measurement platform to image this colour change and we demonstrate its capability to detect concentrations as low as the World Health Organisation upper limit for drinking water of 10 ppb. Our approach does not require expensive infrastructure or expert operators, and its automated sensing, detection and result visualisation platform is user-friendly and robust compared to existing lead biosensors—critical features to enable measurement by non-experts at the point of use.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1038/s44172-024-00337-7

Authors

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Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0002-7093-869X
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Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0002-3879-1544
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Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0001-5372-9944
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Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0002-5034-3584


Publisher:
Nature Research
Journal:
Communications Engineering More from this journal
Volume:
4
Issue:
1
Article number:
2
Publication date:
2025-01-07
Acceptance date:
2024-12-20
DOI:
EISSN:
2731-3395
ISSN:
2731-3395


Language:
English
Pubs id:
2074773
Local pid:
pubs:2074773
Source identifiers:
2569573
Deposit date:
2025-01-07
ARK identifier:
This ORA record was generated from metadata provided by an external service. It has not been edited by the ORA Team.

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