Arsenic is contaminating the drinking water in numerous areas throughout the world. Particularly alarming is the situation in the Bengal Basin where more than 40 million people are drinking high-As water. Since chronic exposure to arsenic, even at low concentrations, leads to an increased risk for keratosis and skin cancer, monitoring of the potable water is imperative.
Our whole-cell bacterial biosensors offer a promising approach to analyze the arsenic concentration of tap water. They are easy to apply and provide accurate and reliable measurements in short time.
The principle is profoundly easy: we use non-pathogenic Escherichia coli bacteria that illuminate in the presence of arsenate and arsenite. The higher the light output, the more arsenic!
Benefits of our biosensor test
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