Abstract
Tracking progress towards Target 6.1 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, “achieving universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all”, necessitates the development of simple, inexpensive tools to monitor water quality. The rapidly growing field of synthetic biology has the potential to address this need by isolating DNA-encoded sensing elements from nature and reassembling them to create field-deployable “biosensors” that can detect pathogenic or chemical water contaminants. Here, we describe current water quality monitoring strategies enabled by synthetic biology and compare them to previous approaches used to detect three priority water contaminants (i.e., fecal pathogens, arsenic, and fluoride), as well as explain the potential for engineered biosensors to simplify and decentralize water quality monitoring. We conclude with an outlook on the future of biosensor development, in which we discuss their adaptability to emerging contaminants (e.g., metals, agricultural products, and pharmaceuticals), outline current limitations, and propose steps to overcome the field’s outstanding challenges to facilitate global water quality monitoring.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 18 |
| Journal | npj Clean Water |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2020 |
Funding
We would like to acknowledge Adam Silverman (Northwestern University) and Professor Samuel Dorevitch (University of Illinois, Chicago) for helpful comments and discussions in preparing the manuscript. W.T. and M.S.V. were supported in part by the National Institutes of Health Training Grant (T32GM008449) through North-western University’s Biotechnology Training Program. This work was also supported by the National Science Foundation (1929912 to J.B.L.), an NSF CAREER award (1452441 to J.B.L.), Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust (to J.B.L.), the Andrew Carnegie Foundation (to S.L.Y.), the Air Force Research Laboratory Center of Excellence for Advanced Bioprogrammable Nanomaterials (C-ABN) Grant FA8650-15-2-5518 (to M.C.J. and J.B.L.), the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (to M.C.J.), the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Program (to M.C.J. and J.B.L.), and the generous support of the American people provided to the Feed the Future Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab (SIIL) through the United State Agency for International Development Cooperative Agreement AID-OAA-L-14-00006 (to S.L.Y.). The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, USAID, or the United States Government.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Water Science and Technology
- Waste Management and Disposal
- Pollution
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
