Nanobio

at the interface of nanotechnology and life sciences

PhoBioSens, rapid detection of antibiotics in milk using photonic biosensors

Project description

The dairy industry is very interested in a rapid, easy-to-use and affordable method for detection of contaminants such as antibiotics and bacteria in milk, whey and baby fooding since currently available detection methods are expensive and very time- and labor-intensive. It typically takes several hours to a number of days before reliable results can be obtained. A faster analysis of the milk can contribute to savings of costs that are currently being made by destroying large quantities of contaminated milk due to delaying of test results. Obtaining results in a shorter time also allows a faster release for distribution of dairy products and this contributes directly to savings on operational costs.

In this project, we are working in collaboration with several SME-partners for the realization of a table-top/portable demonstrator for rapid and accurate detection of antibiotics in milk, based on a multichannel photonic sensor prototype. Various innovative technologies, including lab-on-a-chip, microfluidics, inkjet-printing and integrated photonic sensors will be integrated into this demonstrator to achieve the defined goals. The portable detector will be a first step towards the realization of a handheld device, which will enable rapid and reliable detection of antibiotics in milk at the point-of-need settings such as dairy farms and factories.

In this project you will contribute to the development of a portable demonstrator based on existing photonic biosensor prototypes. The developed demonstrator, consisting of a Lab-on-a-Chip system and a read-out detector, will be first tested with standard/spiked samples. Next, it will be calibrated and validated with complex samples, e.g. whey/milk, and finally benchmarked with gold standard methods. Furthermore, it will be investigated how this portable demonstrator can be applied for rapid antibiotics detection at point-of-need settings such as dairy farms.

Education al programs
- Biology and Laboratory Research / Biologie en Medisch Laboratoriumonderzoek (BML)
- Chemistry / Chemie (C)
- Mechatronics / Mechatronica (MT)
- Applied Computer Science / Technische Informatica (TI)
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Elektrotechniek (ET)

Interested, please send your motivation letter and CV before the 4th of July 2022 to
Aurel Ymeti
a.ymeti@saxion.nl