Abstract
Bacterial biofilms are the main cause of microbial contamination, with serious implications for health the environment, at a domestic and industrial level. The BIOSAFE project aims to develop an innovative and compact opto-mechanical sensors system for the monitoring of bacterial biofilm growth and the effectiveness of sanitizing treatments. The BIOSAFE sensors system will be optimized and validated for applications in the household appliances sector. The results of BIOSAFE project can be extended to different industrial sectors interested in the biofilm growth problematic (food sector, biomedical sector, potable water sector, ...).
Innovative features & competitive advantage
The aim of the BIOSAFE project is the study and the development of an opto-mechanical sensors system for monitoring the presence and the growth of microbial biofilms, and for verifying the effectiveness of sanitizing treatments. Currently the detection of the presence of bacterial biofilms is complicated since usually biofilms are not visible to the naked eye, and the surfaces on which they are formed are difficult to access (eg pipes, membranes of filtration, medical devices): consequently, the identification of the presence of a biofilm often consists of highlighting an ex-post contamination problem. In this project we intend to experiment different type of optical and mechanical sensors and combine them in a new integrated system. This innovative integrated system will be developed to provides more wide, different and complementary measures of the presence or absence of biofilm, biofilm growth, and the effectiveness of sanitization methods minimising environmental impacts. The BIOSAFE sensors system will also be small, compact and robust, suitable for the application in different environments, and to detect in a relatively short time the presence or absence of bacterial biofilm.
Market sector & future commercial prospectives
Several national and international authorities (WHO, EFSA, ISS) estimate that microorganisms present in biofilms cause 80% of diseases of microbial origin, including those of hospital origin and those caused by contaminated food and water. The growth of biofilm has therefore serious implications at health, environmental and industrial levels. Given this negative impact of biofilms on public health, the results of the BIOSAFE project can be extended to different industrial sectors interested in the biofilm problem growth (food sector, biomedical sector, potable water sector, ...). The development of an innovative sensor system for biofilm monitoring, after subsequent appropriate engineering steps, will allow to obtain a new product to be proposed to a wide range of markets: from the household appliance sector to biomedical industry, to the food industry. Also a market leader as Electrolux, established in Friuli Venezia Giulia, confirmed a strong interest in BIOSAFE sensors.