SYMPHONY Newsletter
Integrated SYsteM based on PHOtonic microresonators and
Microfluidic Components for rapid detectioN of toxins in milk
and dairY products
Fondazione Bruno Kessler April 2015
Newsletter, Issue 1
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7-ICT-2013-10 under
grant agreement No 610580. Project duration: 1st November 2013 - 31st October 2016.
www.symphony-project.eu
The project
SYMPHONY is a research and
innovation project, funded by
the European Commission to
find a rapid, cheap and
effective solution to detect
toxins in milk. More infos
about the project and the
consortium at pag. 2-3
Achievements
First prototypes of Photonic
sensors demonstrated to
achieve Limit Of Detection
(LOD) of 0.8*10-6 Refractive
Index Units (RIU) . Find more
results after 18 months of the
project at page 4.
The “Milk Day”
Experts in milk analysis and
quality, scientists in
microsystem technologies and
biosensors and end users
gathered in a workshop
organized in Trento in February
2015, to talk about milk. More
details from pag. 6.
IN THIS ISSUE
SYMPHONY in a nutshell
Integrated SYsteM based on PHOtonic
microresonators and Microfluidic Components for
rapid detectioN of toxins in milk and dairY products
I n the dairy industry, one of the most pressing needs for food quality and
safety is the timely detection of aflatoxin M1 contaminations that originate
from animal feed and are secreted into milk. This issue represents a hazard
for human health and an economic loss for the dairy industry. The available
technology for aflatoxin detection is laboratory-based, in most cases
requiring sample preparation and does not provide timely identification of
contaminants, thus fails to deliver cost-effective management of milk
quality. The entire supply chain relies on the fact that the dairy products
delivered to consumers are safe. Current best practices for Aflatoxin
management in milk in the modern dairy industry recommend aflatoxin M1
analysis to be carried out routinely for quality assurance and quality control
purposes as well as for feed-back mechanisms to farm and animal health
management, as requested by European Commission regulation (EC) No.
1881/2006. The current procedure involves the collection of samples from
collection tanks. The milk samples are analysed in a laboratory with
screening tests such as Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).
Contaminated milk that exceeds the 50 ng/Kg (ppt) aflatoxin limit is not
allowed in the market and has to be disposed.
T he SYMPHONY STREP project (FP7-ICT-2013-10) addresses the needs of
the dairy industry with novel microfluidic technologies and biochemistry for
sample preparation, photonic integrated sensors and compact hardware for
integration in the production chain of the dairy industry, leading toward
precision process management.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s
Seventh Framework Programme FP7-ICT-2013-10 under grant
agreement No 610580. Project duration: 1st November 2013 -
31st October 2016.
Interview with the
coordinator
Dr. Leandro Lorenzelli, Head of
the MST research unit at Fonda-
zione Bruno Kessler, Trento
Could you explain what SYM-
PHONY is about?
SYMPHONY is proposing a
new generataion of high-tech
devices allowing for fast and
reliable analysis of the dairy
products quality. These would
lead to a more precise and
effective management of pro-
duction and distribution pro-
cesses.
What is SYMPHONY main
objective?
The objective is to integrate
different technologies like
photonics, microfluidics and
microbiology to create a por-
table and quick tool to detect
aflatoxin in milk.
SYMPHONY Newsletter N. 1, April 2015
Grant agreement 610580
www.symphony-project.eu
SYMPHONY Consortium
3
SYMPHONY objectives
SYMPHONY is a demand-driven project pursuing:
Advancement of MNBS devices toward real-world applications by providing:
Integrated sample preparation for analytical tools in dairy industry,
Advancement in high sensitivity photonics biosensors, by using aptamers
to provide selectivity to targets and improved sensor stability and hybrid
integration of sources and detectors.
Improvement of milk quality assurance by making available new technologies
and procedures for the detection of aflatoxin and other contamination
Improvement of dairy industry competitiveness by early detection and effec-
tive corrective action against aflatoxin outbreaks and contaminants:
On field simultaneous detection of various contaminants, thanks to arrays
of photonic sensors;
Analysis of raw milk and other liquid dairy products, such as yogurt,
butter milk, kefir, whey;
Quality assurance at various HACCP
Improvement of food quality with positive impact on human health
Symphony facts
EU STREP project
7 partners in 5 country
3 years project
3 M€ Funding
3 private companies
3 research and academic
centers
1 dairy cooperative
www.symphony-project.eu
Follow us on
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SYMPHONY Newsletter N. 1, April 2015
www.symphony-project.eu
C:/Users/morganti/Documents/Algorithm research
https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=8205910&trk=my_groups-tile-grp
First year scientific achievements
Stakeholders needs, system specifications & architecture
Stakeholder needs were surveyed by interviews and questionnaires for the definition of user requirements, specifi-
cations and the general architecture of the system.
Antibiotics were selected as best additional target to be evaluated in addition to Aflatoxin for multianalyte system.
Development of photonic sensors
SiN asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometers (aMZI) were developed by LioniX
SiON microring resonators (mRR) were jointly developed by FBK and UniTN
The achieved Limit Of Detection (LOD) was 0.8*10-6 Refractive Index Units (RIU) and 1.6*10-6 RIU in the case of aMZI
and mRR, respectively.
VCSEL sources and photodiodes are being integrated by means of heterogeneous assembly
Functional surfaces and analytical methods
Aflatoxin purification is based on functional surfaces based on surface coating with mussel foot protein.
Anti-aflatoxin aptamers are immobilized by FBK on the detector surface for the selective detection of aflatoxin,
with a demonstrated layer density around 1013 aflatoxin molecules per cm2
The sensor regeneration and reusability was demonstrated up to 17 regeneration cycles.
Development of microfluidic components
Microfluidic modules for fat separation and milk fractionation produced and tested showing a fat reduction compa-
rable with laboratory techniques.
Reversible Sensor packaging with integral flow cells, has been designed and fabricated.
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Grant agreement 610580
SYMPHONY Newsletter N. 1, April 2015
www.symphony-project.eu
Micro Ring Resonators
Watch the video on: http://symphony-project.eu/
node/3
Aflatoxin response of functionalized
microring resonator
Hybrid integration of microfluidics and
silicon chip
Success criteria for SYMPHONY project
5
SYMPHONY dissemination
Other events
Workshop on biosensing,
Trento 30th March 2015.
http://webmagazine.unitn.it/
evento/dphys/4244/workshop
-on-biosensing
Workshop on “Smart sy-
stems for food industries”,
Trento 15th November
2013
http://www.symphony-
project.eu/node/21
Researcher’s Night 2013,
Trento
Upcoming events
21th World micromachine
summit, Berlin 10-13 May
2015
http://www.mms2015.org/
Recent Advance in Food
Analysis (RAFA 2015), Pra-
gue 3-6 November 2015.
http://www.rafa2015.eu/
index.html
3rd EOS Conference on Op-
tofluidics (EOSOF 2015)
held under the umbrella of
the World of Photonics
Congress 2015 , Munich 22-
23 June 2015.
http://www.myeos.org/
Grant agreement 610580
SYMPHONY Newsletter N. 1, April 2015
www.symphony-project.eu
The Milk Day rationale
The Milk Day was organized
in Trento on February 4th in
the framework of the AISEM
conference to discuss rele-
vant open issues in the appli-
cation of MST in the analysis
of milk contaminations.
Can the use of Micro
System Technologies
and biosensors provide a
solution to overcome
these limitations?
