AquaBioSens Kick-off Meeting – January 26th, 2024

The AquaBioSens kick-off meeting has successfully taken place in Crete, Greece on the 26th of January. During the meeting, the partners introduced themselves, their expertise as well as their planned contributions and the individual work packages. In addition, the meeting provided an excellent opportunity to get to know the project partners in person and to lay the foundations for a successful collaboration.

The Project

The AquaBioSens project will support the EU Mission to “Restore our ocean and waters by 2030” by developing handheld devices to measure aquatic hazards and pollution. The devices use novel analytics, such as immunoassays, environmental RNA quantification, and whole cell biosensors, coupled with advanced sensors, such as acoustic biosensors, fluorimetry, and organ-on-chip devices. Furthermore, the devices will be low-cost, accessible, and connected to the web. AquaBioSens aims to test and validate the devices in coastal and freshwater sites in the UK, Ireland, and Greece. Additionally, the new technologies will be commercialized and disseminated to the international community.

The Consortium

The AquaBioSens consortium consists of eight partners from six EU and associated countries (Greece, Ireland, Denmark, Italy, Austria, United Kingdom), bringing together expertise from biosensors and biomedical diagnostics, analytical biology, aquatic biology, engineering, data science as well as communication, dissemination and exploitation. The coordinator FORTH is a dedicated biosensors group with a strong track record in developing point of need diagnostic tools and devices, based on molecular biology/genetics, immunology, biophysics and optics with demonstrated applications in human health, agro-food safety and marine biomonitoring. The multi-disciplinary team is thus well equipped to develop the novel technologies of significant commercial and societal value.

Keywords

Ocean, water, pollution, hazards, biosensors, biomonitoring