7^th Euro Biosensors & Bioelectronics Congress

Biography

Biography: Valentina Margaria

Abstract

Water scarcity and poor water quality negatively impact food security, livelihood choices and educational opportunities across the world. For these reasons, access to clean water is one of the 17 goals defined by United Nations. The development of innovative and cost effective systems for long term and in-situ freshwater quality monitoring is fundamental to provide access to clean water. Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) are bio-electrochemical systems able to convert the chemical energy stored into the organic matters into electrical energy, therefore, they can simultaneously treat wastewater and produce energy. More recently, increasing attention has been paid to the potential use of MFCs as sensors for in-situ water quality monitoring. The current generated by MFCs directly reflect the metabolic activity of the anodophilic electroactive bacteria. Thus, the presence of a toxicant in the anolyte can affect the microbial metabolism with consequent changes in the current generated. In particular, in MFC-based biosensor the sensing element does not need a physical transducer to obtain a readable signal (electrical power). Moreover, MFC-based biosensor is an early detector; it is simple in operation and can be highly cost effective. These unique characteristics perfectly meet the requirement for long-term in situ sensing application. Focusing on the development of real in situ application at CSF-IIT, we are investigating the biosensing capability of a mixed community biofilm directly coming from river sediment and in equilibrium with the environment.