Coming soon: Biosensor to detect pathogenic shrimp

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Science and Technology's Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development and research partners the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center, University of the Philippines' Philippine Genome Center and the Ateneo de Manila University will soon complete a biosensor kit to detect pathogens in shrimps.

Cynthia Saloma, director of the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in UP Diliman, said that the project detects and identifies diseases carrying pathogens in shrimp to aid the country’s shrimp farmers.

Saloma said that the biosensor kit called PhilGeneStrips would be affordable, easy to use, and with the ability to identify safe shrimp. It can also detect White Spot Syndrome virus, a contagious infection that can lead to sudden death.

The biosensor kit comes with a mobile application ready for cloud computing. This application will serve as an online database of pathogen test strip results for the user. It can also monitor stocking cycles, water quality and other parameters.

According to Saloma, to develop the detection kit, they used both nanotechnology and the traditional polymerase chain reaction, a scientific technique in molecular biology that is used to investigate and diagnose progression of diseases.

“With a click of a button, you will know the sites of active infection as well as the historical record of some of the old sites,” said Saloma.

“We have not yet uploaded this online, which is still a data version. Next year we hope to have this available to the public,” she added.