Multidisciplinary collaboration for environmental protection using biosensors: detection of organophosphate insecticides in aqueous medium

Biosensors are one of the recent scientific domains with large applicability in environmental biomonitoring, medicine, and food analysis. Electrochemical biosensors are measuring systems based on the combination of both biochemical and electronic elements in one unit. This short report presents contributions from Romania, Europe and South America to detect organophosphorus (OP) pesticides in water employing sensitive and specific enzymatic sensors based in mutant acetylcholinesterase enzymes. The studies were carried out by three universities (Universidade Federal do Maranhão, Brazil, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania, and University of Perpignan, France), involving researchers and students with different backgrounds: analytical chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, and electronics. The aim of the experimental study was to develop and to characterise highly sensitive enzymatic biosensors for OP detection in aqueous medium.