One alarming effect of climate change is the perturbation of aquatic ecology. As a result, cyanobacterial blooms occur more frequently in surface water, and the toxic oligopeptides they produce compromise the quality of water we drink and use every day. Therefore, monitoring the dynamics of relevant cyanotoxins emerges as a fundamental prerequisite to protect public health.
Existing methods to monitor cyanotoxins fall short in that they either only capture a small subset of compounds, or in that they cannot be performed in real-time and require highly trained users. Here we propose to develop a novel single-molecule nanopore-based sensing platform that will allow for portable, real-time, standard-free measurements of cyanotoxins in lake water. Biological nanopores will be tailored to detect and quantify relevant cyanopeptide classes (i.e., microcystins, anabaenopeptins and cyanopeptolins) in realistic lake water conditions. The platform will be eventually deployed in a field study to monitor the occurrence of cyanotoxins in Lake Geneva during a bloom, and determine the role of cyanophages in their dynamics. This innovative analytical approach will not only help us to understand how cyanotoxins shape and interact with the surrounding viral, microbial and eukaryotic communities, but will also provide effective strategies to manage cyanobacterial blooms to preserve water quality in a changing climate.
Collaborator: Matteo Dal Peraro (EPFL)
Funding: iPhD Project funded by EPFL’s School of Life Sciences (SV) and School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC)