Paper on antibiotics analysis in water awarded at the IJUP 2019

Paper on antibiotics analysis in water awarded at the IJUP 2019

The paper entitled “Determination of antibiotics in water using digital image colorimetry” was selected as one the best oral presentations of the Meeting of Young Researchers of the University of Porto - IJUP 2019, which was held between 13 and 15 February.

01st April 2019

As part of the S-MODE project, this paper was written by the researchers from INESC TEC's Centre for Telecommunications and Multimedia (CTM) Ana Rosa M. Silva, Pedro Henrique Carvalho, Sílvia Bessa and Hélder P. Oliveira, alongside Antonina Konarzewska, Patrícia S. Peixoto and Marcela A. Segundo, from REQUIMTE/FFUP, and Ana Machado and Adriano Bordalo Sá, from ICBAS/CIIMAR.

The antibiotics are widely used all over the world. However, they aren’t completely metabolised and are frequently incorrectly disposed of, giving rise to its cumulation in the environment. This contributed to the development of the antibiotic resistance, thus representing a serious public health problem. The main goal of this project is to develop a low-cost (less than an Euro per analysis) and an analytical methodology based on smartphones for in-situ screening of the antibiotic contamination in environmental waters.

Scheduled to end in 2021 and with a EUR 240 000 budget, the S-MODE project will offer two smartphone applications for the implementation of validated analytical procedures aimed to screen two classes of antibiotics: sulfonamides and fluoroquinolones. In addition to INESC TEC, the Rede de Química e Tecnologia (REQUIMTE), the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS) and the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto (FFUP) are the partners of the project.

The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC.

Photo Credits: Notícias U.Porto