Water QualityToxic industrial, agricultural and militarized chemicals are a potential threat to (field) drinking water supplies, but capabilities for rapid field testing of water are limited to relatively few chemicals. One alternative to traditional chemical-by-chemical analysis is to use sensors that rapidly evaluate the toxicity of a whole water sample (including chemical mixtures and novel or unsuspected materials) instead of measuring concentrations of individual chemical constituents.
Metals, pesticides or organic chemicals are tested in our lab in combination with a variety of cell lines to learn about the toxicity of these compounds to transfer the results as an indication of water quality.