The research team at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) was awarded a grant of $725,000 (£520,000) by the US Office of Naval Research to pursue the project.
Sailors are sent into all kinds of water as part of their service in the US Navy, but they have limited resources to understand in real-time the health risks that may exist when they conduct underwater duties – from fleet maintenance and repairs to search and rescue and research missions.
The most reliable water testing technologies typically rely on lab-based analysis of samples and scientists knowing which microbes to screen. But with dynamic weather, currents, water temperatures, and sewage and pollution factors, the exact condition of water, particularly of coastal water, at a specific time is hard to predict.
“By the time a water sample arrives at a lab and is tested, the conditions may have changed,” said Dr Samuel Dorevitch, associate professor of environmental and occupational health...