Lund University in Sweden has developed a “super detector” that can track traces from a teaspoon of sugar in the Baltic Sea. The technology has also been adapted for use as a potentially life-saving technique that can detect toxic algae blooms in drinking water.

Lund University professors have developed a biosensor that can find elements at extremely low concentrations – 10 000 times lower than what was previously possible. Doctoral candidate Lesedi Lebogang has found that the method could be especially useful in hot countries such as those in Africa, Australia and the southern United States.

As a result of agricultural runoff and global warming rates of toxic algal blooms or cyanobacteria are on the rise. Detection at an early stage may be able to prevent loss of life and make drinking water improvement plans and river clean-ups more efficient. A portable, cost effective and easy to use device is all that is needed for the technique.

In layman’s terms, the detector works by picking up tiny biochemical indicators which are amplified and converted into electric impulses which can be measured.

By adding antibody chemicals that track toxins in cyanobacteria, Lebogang was able to further develop the sensor to detect when the bacteria burst. When this happens toxins that the antibodies respond to are released causing the sensor to react.

Lebogang explains, “The most challenging part of the research was adapting the analytical system to a real life situation.”

Developed by biotechnology researchers Bo Mattiasson and Martin Hedström at Lund University, the detector device is being investigated for another purpose: the early detection of HIV infection.

WATCH: New technique can trace toxic algae in drinking water
Publication: Development of a real-time capacitive biosensor for cyclic cyanotoxic peptides based on Adda-specific antibodies