Noticias para apartado News

Bioeconomy in Spain

Bioeconomy in the Spanish Public Budget for 2016

Aug 25th 2015

Spanish Parliament starts to debate today the public budget for the next year. So that, we would like to review what are the plans to invest in research and innovation. According to the budget for the Secretary of Innovation, bioeconomy will be one of the priorities for the Spanish Government in 2016.

Bioeconomy figure; food, biomass, public health, energy security, sustainable production, economic and social development

What is bioeconomy?

The bioeconomy definition according to the EFIB (European Forum for the Bioeconomy) is the following:

Bioeconomy encompasses the production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into food, feed, bio-based products and bioenergy via innovative and efficient technologies.

AWSensors tech has important applications in bioeconomy such as environmental monitoring, secure food and water, bioenergy or biomaterials. EU is promoting and funding projects in these fields in order to make the transition to a more resource efficient society and the Spanish Government is following this policy too.

Spain will boost the Bioeconomy Strategy in the public budget to research and development for 2016

Spanish government plans to invest 1,765 million euros in direct aid for innovation projects and 2,446 million euros for loans to enterprises. The resources allocated to direct aid will increase up to 15 per cent over this year and loans will decrease to 9 per cent. The government will give priority to areas considered most in need of development in science and technology such as Andalucia, Extremadura, Canarias, Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia, Galicia and Asturias. Among the actions to be undertaken in these regions, Bioeconomy will be boosted in the agri-food, biomass, bioenergy and bioproducts fields.

Furthermore, the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), the main driver of innovation in Spain, will have 30 million euros more for direct aid, 35.7% more than the previous year. The Spanish High Council Scientific Research (CSIC) will have 467 million euros next year and the Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII), 165 millions.

In spite of this state budget for 2016, Spain is still the 17th european country in gross domestic expenditure on R&D according to Eurostat.

5 reasons to use HFF-AWS biosensing platform to ensure food safety in honey production

The control of chemical residues is essential in honey’s marketing to ensure consumer safety. Equipments available in the market reach the required limit of detection (LOD) (e.g Liquid Cromatography -HPLC) but are not suitable for in-situ implantation in honey packaging industry because they are more expensive and time-consuming and require highly qualified staff. Other approaches available in the market, although faster and without the need of qualified staff, do not reach the required LODs.

However, piezoelectric immunosensors like HFF-AWS based on High Fundamental Frequency Quartz Crystal Microbalance, combined with an antigen-antibody recognition process, are a good alternative or complementary technology for chemical residues control in food. Why? Let us tell you only 5 strong reasons to justify it:

  • Lower cost
    You will only need a very affordable equipment such as AWS platform
  • Suitable for in-situ implantation in hone packaging industry
    The equipment is easily adapted to an industrial process
  • Less sample/reagent consumption
    You will need less than 3 ul sample
  • Label-free and real time transduction
    Direct detection.
  • LOD improved

Analytical parameters (µg L-1)HFF-QCM immunosensorELISA1SPR immunosensor2
I500.620.741.06
LOD0.080.150.03
LOQ0.160.220.11
WR0.16 – 2.370.22 – 2.470.11 – 10.07

AWSensors showed its work entitled “HFF-QCM immunosensor for fast and sensitive detection of DDT in Honey” in the Third International Congress on Quality and Food Safe Acofesal 2015 held in Valencia. We are pleased to share it with you. You can look it up HERE.

June 22th 2015

AWSensors exhibits how HFF-AWS biosensor reaches ELISA limit of detection for carbaryl pesticide in the 4th International Conference on Biosensing Technology in Lisbon

AWSensors showed its work on carbaryl pesticide during the 4th International Conference on Biosensing Technology held in Lisbon, Portugal, last month. Attendees were very interested in how AWS platform provides ELISA limit of detection. Therefore, we would like to explain and share on line the work entitled “Further sensitivity enhancement of HFF-QCM immunosensors for pesticides”.

Foto LisboaAWSensors have successfully developed a High Fundamental Frequency Quartz Crystal Microbalance that improves sensitivity of QCM biosensors. Taking advantage of this technology, AWS developed and tested a renewed highly sensitive HFF piezoelectric immunosensor for its use in pesticide detection, using insecticide carbaryl as a model analyte. To this purpose, 100 MHz quartz crystals were used as the transducer elements of the biosensor and a monoclonal antibody-based
competitive immunoassay was integrated as the sensing specific bio-recognition event. The biosensing interface was improved by employing mixed self-assembled monolayers of alkane thiols as intermediate layers for surface functionalization. This approach allowed the covalent attachment of the assay conjugate on the gold electrode surface in a more orderly and stable way than with simple SAMs. Moreover, a very low concentration of LIB-CNH45 monoclonal antibody was used for the competitive immunoassays. The sensitivity enhancement achieved turns the HFF-AWS pesticide immunosensor into one of the most sensitive analytical tools for this kind of low molecular compounds. Don’t lose the opportunity to take advantage of this innovation. AWSensors offers its new technology at the best price.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD the poster about this work