Industrial water pollution refers to the contamination of the water with chemical and biological compounds. A comprehensive approach to water purification should be specifically considered in the biomedical industry because of harmful impacts on the environment and human health. To optimize the water treatment throughout laboratories, researchers of the TeCIP Institute participate in the SENSOR project, also supported by the Regione Toscana authority under the POR CREO FESR 2014-2020 program. The project aims to develop new systems that enable the monitoring of chemical and microbial pollutants in real time. These novel photonic sensing platforms to detect contaminants offer a low cost solution for monitoring air and water quality.

Most sensors currently available can not detect a wide variety of targets in real time, nevertheless, in recent years a number of new nanotechnology based platforms have been developed for the early detection of biomolecules. There is a growing interest in the use of biosensing applications as new sensing platform allows integration of multiple sensor elements and operates over a wider dynamic range. The use of biophotonic technology makes the platforms suitable for on-line monitoring, real-time detection and the ease of operation.

6 research centers in photonics technology platforms joined the partnership focusing on innovation projects with a critical mass of top-level experts of five companies. Researchers working on the SENSOR project will accelerate the innovation capacity of the five companies by providing access to the expertise of the Sant’Anna School “Optical Fiber Sensors & Integrated Photonics Subsystems” center to exploit the commercial potential of applied photonics.

Philippe Velha, researcher at the TeCIP Institute, is the project coordinator. He graduated in Engineering at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon and obtained his PhD in Physics (with honors) at the University Paris-Sud XI. He worked at the University of Glasgow and joined the Sant’Anna School “Optical Fiber Sensors & Integrated Photonics Subsystems” research team in 2013.

Cover photo: biophotonic-sensing application for water contaminants.