BIOCHIP research project: first results published in prestigious journal

The research project called BIOCHIP (co-funded by the FRA 2020 LINEA B grant) involving three departments of the Federico II, Chemical Sciences, Biology, Mathematics and Applications "R. Caccioppoli," has produced a first research output published in the international journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

A multi-disciplinary research work involving 3 departments and as many scientific-disciplinary fields, and spanning innovative topics (biosensors and artificial intelligence), it proposes the development of a biosensor for the detection of mercury pollution in marine waters based on adhesive and self-assembling fusion proteins capable of binding the metal.

The title of the paper is "A Machine Learning-enhanced biosensor for mercury detection based on an hydrophobin chimera, " the authors: Anna Pennacchio, Fabio Giampaolo, Francesco Piccialli, Salvatore Cuomo, Eugenio Notomista, Michele Spinelli, Angela Amoresano, Alessandra Piscitelli, Paola Giardina.

The The developed biosensor is supported by Artificial Intelligence methodologies with the great advantage of being able to predict mercury concentration levels without the use of classical reading devices, thus allowing in situ monitoring of marine pollution by unskilled personnel.

The journal has a high Impact Factor (10,618) and is certainly a top-ranking journal in the field.