The MOBILES Project, funded under the Horizon Europe programme, will take part in the upcoming 9th Metrology Conference on June 20, 2025, held at the National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos in Athens, Greece. At this prestigious event, researchers from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) will present one of the project’s key innovations: the development of a novel capacitive biosensor for detecting β-estradiol — a potent endocrine-disrupting chemical frequently found in water sources.
This research contribution is based on work authored by Dr. Antonios Georgas and colleagues in which the authors detail the design and validation of a portable aptamer-based sensor that enables rapid, selective, and real-time detection of β-estradiol in aqueous environments.
Advancing Smart Sensing for Environmental and Public Health Protection
One of the central goals of the MOBILES project is to develop next-generation sensor technologies capable of monitoring biotic and abiotic pollutants in real-time, directly in the field, and at low cost. The detection of β-estradiol – a synthetic estrogen and recognized endocrine disruptor – represents a significant challenge for environmental science due to its low concentration in the environment and high biological impact.
β-estradiol can enter aquatic ecosystems through pharmaceutical waste and wastewater discharge. Even in trace amounts, it can interfere with hormone systems in both wildlife and humans, with long-term effects on reproductive health, biodiversity, and ecological stability. Traditional detection methods, such as Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography, although precise, are expensive, labor-intensive, and require centralized lab facilities. These limitations significantly delay response times and reduce the feasibility of widespread monitoring.
A Portable and Rapid Solution for Hormone Pollution Detection
The NTUA team, as part of MOBILES, has developed a portable electrochemical biosensor that uses a capacitive sensing principle. The sensor is based on an anti-estradiol aptamer — a short, single-stranded DNA molecule that selectively binds to E2 — immobilized on gold interdigitated electrodes. Upon binding of the E2 molecule, the system registers a measurable change in capacitance, which can be detected using standard LCR (inductance-capacitance-resistance) meters.
This approach offers several major advantages:
This innovative solution directly addresses a key need for early warning tools capable of identifying hormone pollution before it causes irreversible damage to natural ecosystems or threaten public health.
More about the conference: 9th Metrology Conference
