IIT Madras, UK Researchers Develop Sensors To Detect Antimicrobial Pollutants

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras along with a group of UK-based researchers have developed paper-based sensors that can detect antimicrobial resistance-triggering pollutants.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras along with a group of UK-based researchers have developed paper-based sensors that can detect antimicrobial resistance-triggering pollutants.They are said to be low cost and field-deployable sensors to detect pollutants in water bodies which could be a viable tool for environmental surveillance. The new sensor named as ‘Laser Printed-Microfluidic Paper-Based Analytical Sensors’ is based on a ‘see and tell’ mechanism that makes it logistically effective for wide implementation. The practical application of the sensors is environmental monitoring, food safety analysis and health care monitoring. It will help to detect antimicrobials easily in the parts per million range. It will also help understand the relationship between AMR and AMR-triggering pollutants and assist policymakers in framing solutions to tackle grand societal AMR challenges. Sensors combine adsorption based pre-concentration using reagents that undergo a measurable colour change enabled parts per billion level detection of pollutants.