Rapid pathogen detection in water: from lab prototype to field-ready public health tool

Overview

Faecal contamination is one of the most consequential water hazards because it directly affects public health. Beach closures, do-not-drink advisories, and waterway warnings all depend on detecting microbial contamination quickly and reliably. Today, monitoring still depends largely on infrequent sampling and laboratory turnaround times that arrive long after the contamination has come and gone.

Direct microbial sensing has advanced through biosensors and microfluidics, but most concepts remain at low technology readiness and are rarely demonstrated as field-usable systems. Reliability in the field is hard because of drift, biofouling, inhibition, and the consumable burden of long-term operation.

This PhD will develop a sample-to-answer pathogen sensing workflow that is genuinely field-deployable, with the goal of moving early-stage lab demonstrations toward a true field-operational tool.

Research activities

Working as part of the IoT for Water Hub (an ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub), you will:

• work with regulators and water utilities to define which microbial decisions the workflow needs to support
• design a complete sample-to-answer system covering sample concentration, inhibition controls, internal standards, and reagent stability
• build and bench-validate a prototype at water-relevant concentrations
• test performance across stormwater, sewage-affected, and humic water matrices with paired culture-based and qPCR reference data
• run event-triggered field pilots with partners
• translate findings into standard operating procedures, escalation triggers, and consumable budgets that partners can adopt.

You will be supported by a senior research fellow and a research assistant working alongside you on cross-water testing and field deployment.

Outcomes

By the end of the PhD you will have delivered a field-usable pathogen sensing workflow validated against partner reference data, with documented performance across multiple water types and a clear partner adoption pathway. You will graduate with skills bridging molecular biology, microfluidics, embedded sensing, and field deployment, opening pathways into public health, environmental regulation, biotechnology, and sensor industries.

Skills and experience

We are looking for a student with a bachelor degree (honours) or master degree in:

• biomedical engineering
• environmental engineering
• microbiology
• biotechnology
• chemistry
• a related discipline.

Experience or interest in molecular methods, microfluidics, sensor development, or environmental microbiology is highly desirable. The student should be comfortable with both laboratory work and field deployment in challenging conditions.

Scholarships

You may be eligible to apply for a research scholarship.

Explore our research scholarships

Keywords

• pathogens
• faecal contamination
• sensing
• public health
• monitoring

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.