Postdoctoral internship on electrochemical sensors

Context of the project

There is an urgent need for a portable system to monitor water quality in both developed and developing countries. Currently, there is no commercially available test to meet this demand, as only accredited laboratories can perform these assessments. Conventional physico-chemical techniques such as chromatography must be carried out by qualified technicians, and require bulky and expensive equipment. In addition, the miniaturization of analytical instrumentation is one of the dominant trends in the chemical and biological sciences. The miniaturization of diagnostic devices not only offers portability and significant cost reductions, but also performance gains in terms of speed, analysis efficiency, automation and reproducibility. Thanks to miniaturization, microfluidic technologies can enable successful integration of all relevant steps on a single device. To solve this problem, we have developed a phytoplankton (algae and cyanobacteria) based detection system implemented on a microfluidic platform. Algae and cyanobacteria are natural biosensors because they integrate the biological effects of mixtures of compounds into their environment and react with metabolic changes that are relevant to the potential toxic effects. In phytoplankton-based sensors, the body’s responses are measured in real time by various detection mechanisms which can be optical, chemical or electrical in nature. In recent years, our group has shown the enormous potential of the combination of organic optoelectronic devices with microfluidics applied to the measurement of biosensor toxicity based on algae and cyanobacteria and we want to take advantage of these developments although this project .

Description of the project

You will develop a micro-biosensor to monitor the quality of the water. The present presence sensor combines organic optoelectronic devices and transparent electrochemical electrodes (based on nanomaterials) to carry out toxicity measurements on algae and cyanobacteria. The successful candidate will work on the fabrication of the electrochemical sensor as well as the optimization of phytoplankton management in the microfluidic chip and the optimization of the pollution measurement protocol.

The position is part of a NSERC INNOV project, the future candidate will be part of a team made up of researchers in the biology, chemistry and electronics departments of UQAM.

Required Skills

The candidate must have excellent experience in electrochemistry, and more particularly in sensor electrochemistry. Additional knowledge in microfabrication, microfluidics, water toxicity will be appreciated

Employment period: 1 year
Contact: Ricardo Izquierdo
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