Award details

Rapid bioassay for water-insoluble toxicants using water-in-oil microemulsions as solvent media

Reference	E11436
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Nick Christofi
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr Christopher Oldfield
Institution	Edinburgh Napier University
Department	Life Sciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	50,781
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	05/07/1999
End date	05/07/2000
Duration	12 months

Abstract

Rapid bioassays for toxicity assessment can measure loss of viability of bacteria exposed to an aqueous solution of the toxicant. This approach is unreliable for apolar toxicants. In this work, the feasibility of using water- in-oil (w/o) microemulsions as an alternative test medium will be investigated. W/o microemulsions are stable transparent mixtures of water, oil and surfactant. The water exists as discrete pools coated by a monolayer of surfactant. Bacteria introduced into the pools retain viability and are uniformly exposed to dissolved apolar toxicants at the interface. For a range of toxicants, the viability of standard bioluminescent bacteria, measured in terms of decreased light output, will be determined using a microplate luminometer. The performance of the new assay will be compared and contrasted with that of the standard aqueous assay.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Engineering & Biological Systems (EBS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

I accept the terms and conditions of use (opens in new window)

export PDF file

back to list new search