Latest updates on automated ballast verification presented at Wayne State summer research symposium

Rounding out a summer of learning and research, Alexander Gruber, a Lawrence Technological University student and recipient of a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) in the Department of Physiology, Wayne State University, presented a poster on his research at a recent Wayne State Student Summer Research Symposium, held August 4, 2016. The poster, entitled "Preventing Invasive Species through Automated Detection of Live Organisms in Ship's Ballast Water," was actually presented by co-author Adrian A. Vasquez as Alex was doing a field test of the equipment in Superior, WI the day of the symposium.This recent work can assist regulatory decisions on treating and discharging ballast and is supported by the Great Lakes Protection Fund, Project #964.

The abstract and poster updated recent advances in fluoroescein diacetate-based automated verification platform, as follows:

PREVENTING INVASIVE SPECIES THROUGH AUTOMATED DETECTION OF LIVE ORGANISMS IN SHIP'S BALLAST WATER. Alexander Gruber, Osama Alian, Mrugesh Shah, Adrian A. Vasquez, and Jeffrey L. Ram, Department of Physiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201.

Ballast water treatment systems are being implemented to stop the spread of invasive species throughout the Great Lakes. A need to quickly and easily test the effectiveness of these treatments led to the development of the Automated Fluorescence Intensity Detection Device (AFIDD) in the Ram lab. With help from the Great Lakes Protection Fund, AFIDD can be used to perform live-dead assays on treated ballast water using sterile deionized (DI) water as a negative control. Over the course of the summer Ankistrodesmus (alga), Tetrahymena (protozoan), and river water were tested in the device at various levels of concentration. AFIDD was able to detect the varying organisms and show correlating signal strengths for the concentrations.

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