EMBIO Diagnostics Ltd, Athalassas Ave 8, Strovolos, 2018 Nicosia, Cyprus.
Laboratory of Cell Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens, 75 Iera Odos St., 11855 Athens, Greece.
Biosensors (Basel). 2020 Jan 24;10(2):8. doi: 10.3390/bios10020008.
Population growth and increased production demands on fruit and vegetables have driven agricultural production to new heights. Nevertheless, agriculture remains one of the least optimized industries, with laboratory tests that take days to provide a clear result on the chemical level of produce. To address this problem, we developed a tailor-made solution for the industry that can allow multiple field tests on key pesticides, based on a bioelectric cell biosensor and the measurement of the cell membrane potential changes, according to the principle of the Bioelectric Recognition Assay (BERA). We developed a fully functional system that operates using a newly developed hardware for multiple data sources and an Android application to provide results within 3 min. The presence of acetamiprid residues caused a cell membrane hyperpolarization, which was distinguishable from the control samples. A database that classified samples Below or Above Maximum Residue Levels (MRL) was then created, based on a newly developed algorithm. Additionally, lettuce samples were analyzed with the conventional and the newly developed method, in parallel, revealing a high correlation on sample classification. Thus, it was demonstrated that the novel biosensor system could be used in the food supply chain to increase the number of tested products before they reach the market.
人口增长和对水果及蔬菜产量的需求增加促使农业生产达到了新的高度。尽管如此，农业仍然是优化程度最低的行业之一，其实验室测试需要数天时间才能在农产品的化学水平上提供明确的结果。为了解决这个问题，我们为该行业开发了一个定制的解决方案，可以根据生物电识别分析（Bioelectric Recognition Assay，BERA）的原理，使用生物电动细胞生物传感器和细胞膜电位变化的测量，对关键农药进行多次现场测试。我们开发了一个全功能系统，该系统使用新开发的硬件来处理多个数据源和一个 Android 应用程序，可在 3 分钟内提供结果。乙酰胺残留会引起细胞膜超极化，这与对照样品是有区别的。然后，根据新开发的算法创建了一个将样品分类为 Below 或 Above Maximum Residue Levels（MRL）的数据库。此外，还平行分析了生菜样品，常规方法和新开发的方法，结果表明样品分类具有高度相关性。因此，该新型生物传感器系统可以用于食品供应链，在产品进入市场之前增加测试产品的数量。
