The purpose of this research is to develop a device that allows researchers to take an instrument to bodies of water that contain species of interest. Currently, gallons of water must be transported from the body of water of interest to the researcher’s lab, where the eDNA must be multiplied by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) so that its response can be magnified to a point where it is quantifiable. Additionally, eDNA tends to degrade after a certain amount of time in the environment, so having an instrument that would allow for faster analysis would be beneficial. Other problems stem from the multiple steps involved in this process; this makes it time intensive, and there is both a higher cost and a higher chance of human error or other errors. The proposed method will allow for more cost-effective analysis of small organisms in the water. The proposed instrument will be composed of glass slides treated with 3-[2-(2-aminoethylamino)ethylamino]propyl-trimethoxysilane (APTS), then treated with DNA primer specific to species of interests. A Horizontal Attenuated Total Reflectance Accessory (HATR) was used with a Fourier Transform – Infrared Spectrometer (FT-IR) to demonstrate the presence of each additional layer added to the glass slides. The APTS and DNA primer have been shown to successfully be bonded to the slides via the HATR with FT-IR. Continuing research will involve testing means to qualitatively identify successful eDNA bonding, then further testing will ensure the primers are specific when used on the slides.

Attaching DNA primers to slides with synthetically modified glass

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