Introduction
Solution for rapid detection and quantification of microorganisms in industrial and environmental waters.
CYTO-WATER project is an innovation project co-founded by the European Community, through the HORIZON 2020 initiative. The project was launched in June 2015 and is expected to be completed in May 2018. The project is coordinated by Labaqua in partnership with CETaqua, ICFO, Bertin Technologies, microTEC and Memteq Ventures LTD. The objective of the project is to deploy, for the first time in industrial and environmental waters, a new imaging cytometer platform for the detection and quantification of microorganisms. This will allow quantify Legionella and E. coli population within 120 minutes from obtaining the sample, overcoming in this way the main disadvantage of traditional methods used in laboratories, i.e. long time-to results which can currently last up to 12 days in the case of Legionella and 1 day for E. coli. This tool will be an easy-to-handle portable form, which will increase its versatility and widen the possibilities of onsite applications.
