A low-cost, portable generic biotoxicity assay for environmental monitoring applications

Fish chromatophores have been shown to be promising biosensors for the detection of hostile agents in the environment. However, state-of-art methods for such applications are still based on extensive use of data/signal processing, in conjunction with need for a skilled human observer to carry out the detection. As a result, conventional methods are complex, costly and cumbersome rendering them useless for field applications requiring low-cost portable solutions capable of fast detection. A new technique is proposed based on the popular scheme of observing the aggregation response in chromatophores for detection of toxicity, and a solution using optical detection and electronic processing is outlined. This scheme has the advantage of being low in cost while providing simple, fast and reliable detection.