Professor Sera Young Helps Develop Test for Detecting Toxic Fluoride in Water

Northwestern University scientists have teamed up to create an affordable, easy-to-use, and reliable test for determining dangerous levels of fluoride in water. The new biosensor device, which was tested in rural Kenya, demonstrates that water testing for fluoride can be done outside of a laboratory and the results can be interpreted by non-experts.

Tens of millions of people around the world are believed to live in areas where the water supply is contaminated by toxic levels of naturally occurring fluoride. The extent of this problem has been difficult to assess because of the high cost or complexity of existing testing methods.

This new testing approach, which is a major step toward addressing global health concerns over access to safe drinking water, was made possible through a unique collaboration between anthropologists and synthetic biologists. The study was co-led by Sera Young, an associate professor of anthropology and global health studies at Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, and Julius Lucks, a synthetic biologist.

“This is a whole new way to measure water quality,” Young said. “The study shows that we can get a test into people’s hands that is based on some very complex biology but works very simply.”

In 2017, Young and colleagues developed the Water Insecurity Experiences Scales to provide a measurement of global water insecurity that takes human experiences into account. Young partnered with the Gallup World Poll to publish estimates for half of the globe using the WISE scale in 2022 in Lancet Planetary Health.

Learn more in Northwestern Now’s article, “Biosensors change the way water contamination is detected.”