New Product Announcement
BioThema is proud to announce its newly developed kit for measuring microorganisms in water. It has recently been used on the boats participating in the Volvo Ocean Race to map the ocean biomass, as part of a unique research project initiated by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics and its sister company Wallenius Water. The project is aimed at creating awareness of the problem with invasive species as well as collecting valuable information that may contribute to preventing the spread of invasive species, a problem that the UN’s maritime organization, the IMO, classifies as a major threat to the oceans.
The method, which is based on collecting the cells on a filter and measuring the ATP (the energy currency of all living cells) directly on the filter, is now described in a video at www.biothema.com . Measurements are performed with the most sensitive luminometer commercially available, i.e. the FB12 luminometer from Berthold Detection Systems, www.berthold-ds.com . The assay takes only 2.5 minutes. The kit can be modified for various applications increasing the sensitivity even further. Applications include fresh water, drinking water, swimming pool water, cooling water and process water. By using a highly sensitive ATP reagent and filtering a large volume it may even be possible to measure bacteria in WFI (water for injection used in the pharmaceutical industry). We have seen no problems filtering 1 L tap water. All the microbial cells from the entire sample volume are concentrated on the filter. This means a 10,000 fold increased sensitivity compared to using a 0.1 mL sample volume that has been previously used.