Project: HydraSense: Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) monitoring and management
Challenge Space
Environment Challenge
Prinicipal Investigator(s) and team names
Dr Paul Leonard (PI); Prof Fiona Regan (co-PI); Ms Marta Albin (PhD student)
Collaborating Institutions
Funding support
Project start date
1 June 2026
End date
1 November 2027
Problem
Freshwater harmful algal blooms (HABs) are becoming more frequent, persistent and widespread as climate change, eutrophication and land-use change accelerate.
Cyanobacteria can release microcystin-LR (MC-LR), threatening drinking-water supplies, recreation, aquaculture and ecosystems. Events such as the Lough Neagh bloom demonstrate the costs of delayed detection: prolonged recreational-site closures can reduce tourism and local trading; remediation companies may repeat treatment or mobilisation while awaiting verification; and water utilities may increase sampling, alter treatment or restrict abstraction without timely toxin evidence. These operational costs sit alongside distinct regulatory and public-health decisions, which may require accredited confirmation.
The World Health Organisation guideline value of 1 µg/L MC-LR in drinking water makes timely, toxin-specific evidence essential. Visual inspection cannot establish toxicity; LC-MS and conventional ELISA require specialist laboratories, transport and often days of delay; and many rapid strips are qualitative or may require sample preparation when water is turbid. The questions “Is toxin present, at what concentration, and is the risk changing?” are therefore answered too late.
Background
The effects of this testing delay vary by customer. Recreational-water managers may maintain precautionary site closures while awaiting toxin results, affecting tourism, local businesses and public confidence. Remediation companies need rapid pre- and post-treatment measurements to verify whether an intervention has worked and to avoid unnecessary repeat treatment or mobilisation.
Drinking-water utilities and reservoir operators require timely evidence to manage abstraction risk, adjust treatment processes and prioritise confirmatory sampling. These operational decisions are distinct from formal regulatory or public-health determinations, which may continue to require accredited laboratory confirmation.
Solution
HydraSense closes this HAB challenge gap with a connected workflow built on DCU recombinant antibodies: a five-to-ten-minute semi-quantitative dipstick for unfiltered water and a portable quantitative ELISA delivering results in approximately 35 minutes. These are the immediate PoC focus; autonomous sensing and broader platform expansion remain future upside. Smartphone and cloud tools will create geotagged, auditable records.
HydraSense is intended to complement recognised laboratory methods by supporting field triage, prioritising confirmatory testing and enabling earlier operational decisions, not to replace formal confirmation where required. The central PoC hypothesis is: if HydraSense can provide trusted, usable, same-day microcystin evidence in real-world water samples, it can support faster triage, escalation and verification decisions. Customer discovery has validated demand for this workflow rather than another standalone assay.