Prior our trip we designed a prototype of a device, taking into consideration main needs of affected people based in our knowledges about the problem. To achieve this, we used the following process to design a product. To find more information about steps in the design click here.

We knew that people who harvest shellfish canʼt know immediately if the products they extract are contaminated with HAB (harmful algal blooms) related toxins, so they have to extract everything, then test it and wait for the results to be able to sell the extracted products. Many times they lose everything because itʼs contaminated and as a consequence they waste a whole day of work and money that implicates less food in their houses. It is for that reason that fishermen carry in their boats a cat to which they give seafood and looks if it paralyzes, if it does, then it is contaminated so they have to move to another zone to extract shellfish.

We realized that we had to replace the “cat method” for a better and more reliable method to test shellfish in situ. So we create the BiMaTox (biosensing for marine toxins) Kit, considering a grinder to treat the sample, a piece of paper in which is going to be our lyophilized molecular construct, a drop for add buffer, easy to understand instructions and a box to protect all.

Considering all previous we got our first prototype, which was carved in wood to be tested.