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Microbes identify toxins

29.05.2012

Scientists from Tel Aviv University have developed a toxin sensor based on genetically modified bacteria. A small sensor called the Dip Chip is designed to warn the user of general toxicity, that is, it "tells" the presence of any toxic materials that are dangerous to a living organism.

Artificial toxins easily contaminate food and drinking water. In ancient times, human tasters were used to detect poisoned food. Today, there are more humane methods, including, for example, special fish that monitor the safety of drinking water, or special biosensors. But despite advances in toxin detection, modern electronic equipment is too complicated to use, expensive, rather bulky, and usually narrowly functional.

The Dip Chip contains microbes that react biologically to various toxic chemicals, mimicking the biological responses of humans and animals. The device was created on the basis of genetically modified microorganisms developed in the laboratory of Professor Belkin. When modified microbes are exposed to toxic or poisonous substances, they produce measurable biochemical reactions that are converted into electrical signals.

The Dip Chip Detector is very easy to use as it gives only two types of signals: "toxic" or "non-toxic". At the same time, the number of false positives, according to the developers, is very small. The main advantage of the Dip Chip is its ability to define toxicity as a biological quality. In other words, microbes determine the danger of a sample for the life of a living organism, and do not detect specific toxic substances (possibly not dangerous in small concentrations), as all other sensors do. Many excellent detectors already exist for identifying specific toxic substances, but quickly determining whether water is drinkable, for example, is much easier with devices like the Dip Chip.

Currently, Israeli scientists are working on improving their invention. They are going to create compact versions of the Dip Chip, suitable for installation in mobile phones and tablet computers, which will be useful to the military and tourists. Such electronics, equipped with a Dip Chip, can quickly determine whether a particular product can be eaten.

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