Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Endocrine Disrupting Compounds (EDCs) are chemicals that may interfere with the body's endocrine system and produce adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune effects in both humans and wildlife. They can mimic naturally occurring hormones like estrogens and androgens, binding to receptors within cells, blocking endogenous hormones and causing interference with the production or control of natural hormones and their receptors. Health authorities are becoming more concerned about the potential public health impact of the EDCs originated from household and industrial practices. Although the concentrations of these contaminants are usually low in our water systems, there may induce adverse wildlife and human health effects (e.g. cancer risk and adverse reproductive development). Consequently, highly sensitive detection methods for these compounds are in demand. We aim to develop a novel detection technology that is suitable for routine monitoring of EDCs in water. This new monitoring system will be superior to current methodologies in terms of sensitivity, detection limit, throughput and sample processing. Our detection platform will consists of an array of bar-coded microsphere light resonators ( optical sensors) integrated with specific molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) elements for multi-analyte high-throughput detection. Until now, the performance of EDC sensors is generally limited by their sensitivity and the use of biological recognition elements, such as antibodies or biochemical reactions. These biosensors share a common shortcoming of expensive reagents, which limits their use in routine water monitoring. In contrast, our novel detection platform has a high sensitivity and employs a class of synthetic recognition elements that we believe will be less expensive and hence cost-competitive against current detection methodologies.