Fayetteville, AR – BioDetection Instruments, LLC has received a $100,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research award from the National Science Foundation. The project will demonstrate the feasibility of the development of an innovative microfluidic biochip for rapid screening of pesticide residues in water and food. The proposed biochip will be built on BioDetection Instruments’ exclusively-licensed patented technology and previous work on biosensors that are based on microfluidics, interdigitated microelectrodes (IMEs), and the electrochemical measurement of an indicator of microorganisms’ physiological activity.

Contamination of water and food by pesticides and the potential hazard to human health remain major concerns of our society. Current pesticide detection methods require sophisticated instruments, skilled personnel, extensive sample pretreatment, expensive bioreagents and/or intensive manual operations, and thus are unsuitable for on-site or routine screenings. Part of the challenge that faces the regulatory agencies and industries is to find better technologies for the rapid detection of low-level pesticide residues, such as those being developed by BioDetection Instruments.