Electromagnetic Wave Sensing of Euglena gracilis Viability and Quantification

Abstract

Euglena is a naturally occurring algae which can be found in any fresh water source.It is non-toxic, easy to handle, visualize and relatively resilient to variation in environment.This, along with the relatively large size of Euglena, means it can be readily used as a modelfor environmental monitoring of other smaller pathogenic micro-organisms (e.g. Escherichiacoli ). Currently the behavior of Euglena is observed through the use of an optical microscopefor sensing purposes. However, this method su ers from following major pitfalls: (1) the sizeand expense of the microscope; (2) the small observation volume (approx. 1 L); (3) the imageprocessing requirements and (4) need for a skilled human operator to acquire those images. Byusing electromagnetic (EM) wave technology in the GHz frequency range we seek to overcomethese challenges, since it has been demonstrated by the authors to be cost e ective, have alarge sensing volume (> 100L) and produce comparatively simple output data. Furthermoreit is possible to use simple software algorithms to process the sensor output data, and providereal-time information on Euglena gracilis viability and quantity. This paper shows proof ofconcept work to verify the feasibility of the proposed EM wave technology as an alternative tothe current optical microscopy methods.