The Insubrias Biopark unveils the “antitoxin” nose

The aim of the European project “Otasens – Novel photosensor-based device for rapid and quantitative ochratoxin”, which is being presented on Friday, 22 January, at 10.30 a.m., in the conference room of the Insubrias Biopark in Gerenzano, is to create a compact and economic device, that is easy to carry and to use, that detects toxins that are harmful to health that may be present in wine, in cereals, in beer, and, more generally, in the food chain.

The project began from the need to increase checks in the food chain, to prevent toxins that are harmful to human beings (European norm 410/2006), and it has proceeded thanks to the partnership between the worlds of production and of research. The main participants are the company Automation Srl, the administrative supervisor of the project, Rome’s “La Sapienza” University (Departments of Electronic Engineering and Plant Biology) and INESC-MN, the Technology Research Institute of Lisbon.

“What is new about the device that we are going to create is that, on a single glass substrate, on one hand, the ability to separate the toxin from the analysed solution, will be combined with, on the other, the measurement of its degree of toxicity,” explains Professor Giampiero de Cesare, of the Department of Electronic Engineering in Rome’s “La Sapienza” University. “Thus, we will have a device that costs less than the instruments currently available, that can be used in the laboratory, but also by individual companies that need to analyse the substances produced, or that they are going to use, on their premises.”

Roberto Arrigoni, the Chairman of Automation Srl, explained, “The Insubrias Biopark in Gerenzano was chosen as the venue for the presentation of the Otasens Project because we wanted a prestigious, scientific location in which to house this event, which is so important for our company.”

The Biopark will house the presentation of Otasens, because it is an innovative project that combines a number of needs, those of research and applications in the industrial and company fields. And it is with this interdisciplinary approach that the “research for life” “Fondazione Istituto Insubrico” operates.