An In Situ Autonomous Bacterial Pathogen Sensor for Water Quality and Environmental Monitoring Applications

We present a novel pathogen detection technology that can enumerate cultivable generic E.Coli or enterococci bacteria in a fully autonomous manner in both fresh water and seawater. Instruments can be remotely operated through a phone or cloud interface, and can perform up to seven independent enumerations in situ, automating the entire processing chain: a representative sample is loaded into an individual bioreactor, mixed with a specific reagent and growth medium, and incubated using a pre-defined temperature profile. Bacterial presence and development is monitored using real-time multispectral optical measurements, and data is communicated wirelessly to the cloud. Based on correlation between the time of optical signal appearance and bacterial concentrations, the sensor is able to enumerate within hours the viable and cultivable target bacteria present in the sample, and send alerts to operators thus enabling effective monitoring of crisis situations and operational management of water quality. Typical deployments are discussed.