Development of a low-cost, easy to use, lab-on-a-chip technology to detect Cryptosporidium Parvum and other water borne parasites

Cryptosporidium parasites are a major cause of neonatal diarrhoea in ruminant species and can lead to significant production losses, which can also lead to significant disease and potentially death in humans. Cryptosporidium parasites are transmitted either directly via the faecal-oral route and can also be effectively transmitted via contaminated water or food.

One of the main challenges with Cryptosporidium parasites is that they are very small, difficult to detect and also very environmentally stable; potentially remaining infective for up to a year in cool and moist environments. Cryptosporidium parasites are a serious problem for drinking water suppliers because many of their water catchments contain livestock and wildlife, which can be significant sources of Cryptosporidium contamination, with parasites being washed into the drinking water supply.

It is important to be able to detect Cryptosporidium sensitively and specifically both in the field and in laboratory settings with greater simplicity and lower cost than current gold standard techniques allow.

Biosensor technologies and lab-on-a-chip systems represent an exciting class of technologies which can deliver the high analytical sensitivity, specificity, ease of use, portability and measurement robustness required for Cryptosporidium detection. The ability to achieve reliable low-cost detection both in the field and on the bench will drive a step change in the detection and management of Cryptosporidium outbreaks.

New biosensor technologies, driven by innovative new 'fluorous' surface chemistries open up potential for implementation of extremely low-cost biosensor systems that crucially are reusable and mass manufacturable, for the detection of this pathogen. In parallel to this, nucleic acid amplification strategies for the detection of genetic sequences from SARS-CoV-2 on low-cost sensor substrates have been demonstrated in wastewater samples.

The intention of this project is to extend the fluorous surface chemistry approach to nucleic acid amplification assays like PCR, LAMP and RPA so that waterborne parasites can be detected in a range of sample matrices using a portable technology format.