Team:UChile Biotec/Project
The Problem
The Red Tide is a natural phenomenon occurring in many coasts around the globe. It consists in a rapid increase of toxic microalgae, being the most important the ones near the extraction zones of where we get our seafood. When the shellfish eat these toxic algae, they become poisonous to us, so the government (or the respective responsible entity) needs to analyze all the seafood extracted to make sure our food is not contaminated, which means thousands of analysis per week worldwide.
Current Solution
Scientists around the world have developed a very reliable method of analysis: The Bioassay. Keeping it simple, they blend a sample of the shellfish meant to be sold, mix it with special chemicals and inject it directly into 3 different mice's stomachs. After a while, they can see the results: if 2 or more of them die, they say the shellfish is poisoned, so we can't eat them.
The most remarkable feature of this method is that it is effective (Ref. 1), so effective that there are rarely some cases of intoxicated people around the world. But there are two big problems:
First, it's the logistics. It needs to be done in a laboratory, which sometimes is located far away from the extraction zones. It also needs to have the right equipment to keep the mice in good shape to be used in the assays. Another problem is that it needs to be done by an expert team of scientists that can precisely inject the mice and see the results.
Second, and most importantly: Ethics. We are talking of thousands of analysis per week, each one taking at least 3 mice to be correctly done. And let us clarify: If the sample resulted not to be contaminated, which is the most cases (more than 99%) the mice need to be sacrificed anyway. In other words, thousands of animals are dying for nothing.
Additionally, all of the problems listed above involve a lot of money; starting with the transfer of the shellfish sample to the laboratory, to the mice themselves.
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The Solution
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