Microplastics (MP) and nanoplastics (NP) are now recognized as one of the most pervasive and least understood forms of pollution in marine ecosystems. Their small size allows them to cross biological membranes, accumulate in cells, and interfere with fundamental metabolic processes. Yet, despite their growing environmental relevance, detecting these particles remains a major scientific and technological challenge.
Rapid and reliable bacterial detection has become a strategic priority across healthcare, food safety and environmental monitoring. The increasing burden of foodborne diseases, antimicrobial resistance and emerging environmental risks calls for analytical methods capable of delivering accurate results within operationally relevant timeframes.
Environmental pollution continues to create a need for analytical technologies that can provide reliable information on contaminants while reducing the environmental footprint of the monitoring process itself. Conventional analytical methods often depend on complex instrumentation, energy-intensive workflows or synthetic reagents that can generate additional chemical waste. This has increased interest in sensing approaches that combine analytical performance with greater sustainability.
MOBILES continues its European soil campaign across all study sites in Europe. After documenting the autumn sampling, partners have returned to the field this spring to collect new samples from the six countries participating in the project.
From 6–8 July, the MOBILES project took part in the AquaBioSens Annual Meeting, hosted by the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK. The three-day event combined consortium discussions, technology demonstrations and field testing, creating an excellent setting for exchanging experience between European projects working on innovative environmental monitoring technologies.
At the BioRemid 2026 conference in Florence, the MOBILES consortium shared early insights from its European‑scale investigation into how soil microbiomes respond to emerging contaminants. Lorenzo Pin (CNR‑ISAFOM) presented the first results from WP3, which aims to understand how microbial communities can act as sensitive indicators of pollution history and type.
Students at the University of Catania had the opportunity to explore practical methods used in environmental sequencing. Researchers from CNR‑ISAFOM contributed to the academic programme by leading a two‑day practical seminar focused on environmental DNA (eDNA) and next‑generation sequencing (NGS) data analysis.
The MOBILES consortium is participating at the 13th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management, held on 24–27 June in Kos, Greece. This conference brings together research on circular materials, biodegradable polymers, wastewater and sludge management, biotechnology, and smart environmental monitoring, areas directly connected to MOBILES’ work on developing sustainable biosensing technologies for detecting pollutants in complex environmental matrices.
The MOBILES consortium has representation at the 20th International Conference on Electroanalysis (ESEAC 2026). Slađana Đurđić will highlight new electrode materials and aptamer‑based recognition strategies enabling faster and more accessible detection of biological contaminants, including Bacillus cereus spores.
The MOBILES consortium will be represented at the 10th European Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology (EURO EVO DEVO) meeting, where Cristina Caissutti (IRET‑CNR) will present innovative work on plant‑based biosensing for environmental monitoring.
The MOBILES consortium would like to announce its scientific presence at the 41st Topical Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), where project partners will present cutting‑edge research advancing next‑generation biosensing technologies. With five contributions, spanning keynote and invited lectures, and posters, the project showcases how electrochemistry, photochemistry, and environmental diagnostics converge to support Europe’s zero‑pollution ambition.
The MOBILES consortium has a new scientific publication. The publication provides a comprehensive review of electrochemical biosensing strategies for detecting 17β‑estradiol (E2), one of the most potent endocrine‑disrupting compounds (EDCs) found in aquatic environments. E2 is also classified as a priority substance within the category of Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs), subject to stringent regulatory oversight.
On 23 April, the MOBILES project contributed to the Marine Shield Cluster webinar “From Monitoring to Remediation”, presenting recent progress on the development of aptamer‑based electrochemical sensors for detecting pollutants in water.
Cristina Caissutti, PhD student under the supervision of Patrizia Brunetti (CNR‑IRET), has been awarded a prestigious EMBO Short‑Term Fellowship to spend six months in Andrew Plackett’s laboratory at the University of Birmingham.
Deliverable 6.3 - Data Management Plan Update has been submitted.
The Marine Shield Cluster is pleased to announce its upcoming webinar titled “From Monitoring to Remediation”, bringing together EU-funded projects working on innovative solutions to tackle marine pollution.
Understanding how to visualize the smallest biological and synthetic particles is essential for advancing diagnostics, materials science, and microbial monitoring. Traditional optical microscopy is limited by diffraction, and even super‑resolution fluorescence techniques face challenges such as photobleaching, background noise, and the need for labels.
A recent study, In Situ Electrochemical Monitoring of Bacillus cereus Biofilm Formation, carried out by three MOBILES partners—INRAE, the University of Belgrade, and the University of Bordeaux—demonstrates how electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) can serve as a sensitive, label‑free method to track biofilm formation directly on material surfaces.
Deliverable 1.1 - Design, characterisation and optimization of aptamers, ADN/DNA probes and antibodies has been submitted.
A recently published review in Coatings (MDPI, 2024) provides a comprehensive overview of how different coating strategies influence biosensor performance. It examines the materials, surface treatments, and functional layers that support reliable signal transduction, enhance biorecognition, and extend sensor lifetime. The review highlights how coatings are no longer passive protective films but active components that shape the sensitivity, selectivity, and operational stability of modern biosensing platforms.
A story from inside WP3
Today, we invite you behind the scenes to follow the journey of a single soil sample as it moves from the landscape to the laboratory, eventually becoming data that help us understand how pollution shapes European soils.
Antimicrobial resistance is a growing global threat, making once-treatable infections increasingly difficult to cure. Among the most concerning resistant pathogens is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacterium responsible for severe hospital- and community-acquired infections, including sepsis. Rapid and reliable identification of MRSA is essential to guide treatment and limit the spread of resistance, but current diagnostic tools remain slow or difficult to deploy outside specialized laboratories.
Foodborne illnesses remain a major public health concern worldwide, yet many contamination events could be prevented with faster and more effective detection tools. One particularly challenging pathogen is Bacillus cereus, a bacterium that commonly contaminates food in the form of highly resistant spores. These spores can survive food processing treatments such as pasteurization and later germinate, leading to food spoilage or disease.
What if a simple plant could remove toxic arsenic from water faster and cheaper than expensive filtration systems? Scientists from the MOBILES project show that this could be true by exploiting the Chinese brake fern (Pteris vittata).
Giulia Offidani completed a thesis on arsenic-detection plant biosensors as part of the MOBILES project.
The first annual meeting of the MOBILES project took place on November 5–6, 2025, at INRAE in Jouy-en-Josas (FRANCE).
The 10th International Symposium on Transparent Conductive Materials & 14th International Symposium on Transparent Oxide and Related Materials for Electronics and Optics - TCM–TOEO 2025 Conference took place from October 20–24, 2025, in Crete, Greece, bringing together researchers from around the world to discuss the latest advances in transparent materials, electronics, and optics.
As part of the MOBILES project, researchers recently conducted a second round of soil sampling on Lesvos Island, Greece.
MOBILES Newsletter n.2 was published on 29th of September.
This study provides new insights into how foodborne bacteria interact with our intestinal cells, using cutting-edge microfluidic technology.
Campylobacter jejuni is one of the world’s leading causes of foodborne illness. Found mainly in undercooked poultry, this spiral-shaped bacterium can cause severe diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, and—in rare cases—serious complications such as Guillain-Barré syndrome or chronic inflammatory diseases. Yet, despite its impact on global health, the details of how C. jejuni invades and damages the human gut remain poorly understood.
MOBILES project had a great representation in Changchun, China thanks to Slađana Đurđić and Dalibor Stanković.
Our team actively participated in two prestigious scientific gatherings:
Why Estradiol Monitoring Matters
Estradiol (E2) is the most potent estrogen hormone, essential for reproductive health, bone density, and cardiovascular function. However, abnormal estradiol levels are linked to infertility, hormone-sensitive cancers (like breast and ovarian cancer), and other endocrine disorders.
The 76th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry will take place from 7th to 12th September in Mainz, Germany. The focus of this meeting is electrochemistry - From Basic Insights to Sustainable Technologies.
Aleksandar Mijajlović from the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade will represent the MOBILES project with an poster presentation.
The 76th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry will take place from 7th to 12th September in Mainz, Germany. The focus of this meeting is electrochemistry - From Basic Insights to Sustainable Technologies.
Tijana Mutić from the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade will represent the MOBILES project with two poster presentations.
The sampling design and library preparation (D3.1) was published.
MOBILES interaction and connection with other EU-funded projects (D6.2) was published.
YISAC 2025 – Young Investigators Seminar on Analytical Chemistry will take place from June 30 to July 2, 2025, at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The event brings together emerging researchers in the field of analytical chemistry to present novel insights and foster interdisciplinary exchange.
Carbofuran (CBF) is a pesticide used in crop protection that poses serious health and environmental risks due to its persistence and poor degradability. It can lead to contamination of both soil and water. Carbofuran acts as a fast-acting nerve agent, causing total paralysis, including paralysis of the respiratory muscles, which can result in death by suffocation. It is toxic when inhaled or ingested, irritates the eyes, and is highly toxic to aquatic organisms.
Real-Time Hormone Pollution Detection: MOBILES Heads to Athens for the 9th Metrology Conference
On June 20, researchers from the Horizon Europe-funded MOBILES Project will present their latest results at the 9th Metrology Conference in Athens. Their contribution highlights a novel, portable biosensor for detecting β-estradiol (E2), an endocrine-disrupting chemical with serious environmental and public health implications.
Massive amounts of hazardous chemicals such as pesticides, heavy metals, and industrial pollutants, are being discharged into the environment in the name of modern society’s industrialization and growth.
MOBILES meets one of its sister’ projects AquaBioSens. Three MOBILES partners (NTUA, CTU and RICPA) participated as guests at AquaBioSens annual project meeting. A MOBILES representative joined AquaBioSens teams on 26th and 27th May at the Foundation for Research and Technology (FORTH) in Crete (Greece).
Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide for controlling grassy weeds, introduced to the market in the 1970s under the brand name “Roundup.” Glyphosate is widely used for agricultural weed control, despite being potentially hazardous to human health. It works by inhibiting a specific enzyme pathway essential for plant growth, leading to the eventual death of the targeted plants. This enables farmers to kill unwanted plants and weeds while maintaining their crops. This feature made glyphosate very popular and led to its extensive use in agriculture, forestry, urban areas, and home gardening.
The IX European Bioremediation Conference (IX-EBC) will take place from June 15 to 19, 2025, in Crete, Greece. The MOBILES team will be represented by Raffaele Dello Ioio from Sapienza University in Rome who will give a talk on preliminary findings regarding the adaptability of plant species to arsenic pollution and the application of this knowledge in soil remediation strategies.
The MOBILES project is achieving a key milestone about the soil metagenomics analysis. In May 2025 the first soil sample collection campaign was launched. Partners in Greece, Cyprus, Germany, Poland, Italy and France are collecting soil samples from a variety of polluted sites. The sources of pollution are diverse, ranging from industrial contamination, and arsenic pollution to sewage water.
The 35th Anniversary World Congress on Biosensors will take place from May 19 to 25, 2025, in Lisbon, Portugal. The MOBILES team will be represented by Léo Baldenweck from France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE).
The 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology takes place April 12–15 2025 in Chicago and MOBILES team will be represented by prof. Constantinos Varotsis from the Cyprus University of Technology.
This video explains the dangers of antibiotic resistance and the importance of detecting resistant bacteria. It highlights the limitations of current detection methods—slow but affordable antibiograms and fast but expensive PCR tests.
Scientists are working on improving biosensors—specialized devices that detect environmental pollutants. These biosensors use biological components, such as enzymes and microorganisms, to identify harmful substances in soil and water. To ensure their effectiveness in real-world conditions, researchers are also focusing on practical issues such as proper packaging, durability, safety, and performance testing. This activity will be supervised by RICPA (Research and Innovation Center Pro-Akademia, Poland).
Pollution from various sources is a growing concern, impacting both human health and the environment. The MOBILES project is developing cutting-edge biosensor technology to detect contaminants quickly and accurately. These advanced sensors provide real-time data, allowing for early intervention to keep our environment safe. By identifying pollutants at their source, MOBILES is paving the way for a cleaner environment and a healthier future.
Under the leadership of the University of Rome (UR), CNR-IRET, ARO and CUT are developing advanced biosensors to detect environmental pollutants such as heavy metals (e.g., arsenic), pesticides, antibiotics, and microplastics. These sensors will help monitor soil, water, and air quality using biological components like plants, bacteria, and diatoms (a type of algae).
Biomedical and environmental monitoring require specific and tailored methods for detecting pesticides, metal ions, organic pollutants, or toxins. Molecular Imprinting Technology (MIT) is a novel technique that enables the design of artificial receptors with predetermined selectivity and specificity for a given analyte. This method creates molecular structures complementary to the template molecules in terms of shape, size, and functional groups. Essentially, MIT can be described as a process of making a molecular lock that matches a molecular key.
A team of researchers, led by INRAE (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, France), is developing advanced electrochemical biosensors to detect pollutants such as pesticides, pathogenic bacteria, antimicrobial resistance genes, and spores in soil, water, and air. These sensors will integrate conductive materials and biological components to ensure accuracy, stability, and sensitivity to various contaminants.
The Dissemination, exploitation & communication plan (D5.1) was published.
MOBILES project Newsletter n.1 was published on 26th February 2025.
A call for applications is open for a 24-month Researcher Level III position at the Institute for Mediterranean Agricultural and Forestry Systems (ISAFOM) of the CNR, Catania (CT) site as part of the European Project HORIZON-CL6-2023-ZEROPOLLUTION-01-6 entitled “MOBILES - MONITORING AND DETECTION OF BIOTIC AND ABIOTIC POLLUTANTS BY ELECTRONIC, PLANTS AND MICROORGANISMS BASED SENSORS.”
Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms that lack a nucleus and can be found in various environments. They can be beneficial, harmless, or disease-causing in humans, animals, and plants. The ability to detect and analyse them is crucial for effective disease diagnosis and selecting the right treatment. Identifying the sources of bacterial infections helps in choosing the appropriate antibiotic treatment. Proper prescription and use of antibiotics prevent bacteria from developing resistance to certain types of antibiotic treatment.
In the MOBILES project, under work package 3 (WP3), researchers are studying bacterial/microbial community in the soil to better understand how pollution affects them and how they can help restore damaged land. By analysing the genetic material of these microbes, researchers aim to identify key biological markers that indicate soil health and can guide soil rehabilitation efforts. These findings will help develop new strategies for managing contaminated environments more effectively.
Guanine (G) is one of the four DNA nucleotide bases, along with adenine (A), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). The sequence of these four nucleotide bases carries DNA’s genetic information. Within a double-stranded DNA molecule, guanine bases on one strand pair with cytosine bases on the opposite strand.
Raffaele Dello Ioio, from Sapienza University of Rome, recently took part in a Ministerial Program for scientific education in High Schools, where he discussed and promoted advanced sustainable methods for monitoring and removing contaminants from soil and water.
A new study explores the development of an electrochemical sensor for detecting diuron, an herbicide commonly used in agriculture to improve productivity and the quality of agricultural products such as citrus fruits, rice, and potatoes.
The meeting of the MOBILES Project partners at the Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation – State Research Institute (IUNG) in Puławy, Poland, marked significant progress toward one of the project's key objectives—the collection of soil samples and their metagenomic analysis.
We are excited to announce that the MOBILES project has joined the Marine Shield Cluster, an innovative network of EU-funded projects united by a shared commitment to combating water pollution and safeguarding marine and environmental health.
The National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) is working with another 15 partners from academia, research, and industry to develop prototypes of electronic and organism-based biosensors to monitor organic chemicals, antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria, and pathogens in water, soil, and air.
As we reflect on this year, which is nearing its conclusion, we fondly recall the kick-off meeting for our MOBILES project in beautiful Athens this September.
The Data Management Plan (D6.1) was published.
The meeting was held in Belgrade at the end of October 2024.
In today’s rapidly changing world, the challenges posed by environmental pollution and harmful pathogens are more urgent than ever...
