A novel bioluminescent NanoLuc yeast-estrogen screen biosensor (nanoYES) with a compact wireless camera for effect-based detection of endocrine-disrupting chemicals

The presence of chemicals with estrogenic activity in surface, groundwater, and drinking water poses serious concerns for potential threats to human health and aquatic life. At present, no sensitive portable devices are available for the rapid monitoring of such contamination. Here, we propose a cell-based mobile platform that exploits a newly developed bioluminescent yeast-estrogen screen (nanoYES) and a low-cost compact camera as light detector. Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells were genetically engineered with a yeast codon-optimized variant of NanoLuc luciferase (yNLucP) under the regulation of human estrogen receptor α activation. Ready-to-use 3D-printed cartridges with immobilized cells were prepared by optimizing a new procedure that enables to produce alginate slices with good reproducibility. A portable device was obtained exploiting a compact camera and wireless connectivity enabling a rapid and quantitative evaluation (1-h incubation at room temperature) of total estrogenic activity in small sample volumes (50 μL) with a LOD of 0.08 nM for 17β-estradiol. The developed portable analytical platform was applied for the evaluation of water samples spiked with different chemicals known to have estrogen-like activity. Thanks to the high sensitivity of the newly developed yeast biosensor and the possibility to wireless connect the camera with any smartphone model, the developed configuration is more versatile than previously reported smartphone-based devices, and could find application for on-site analysis of endocrine disruptors. Graphical abstract Wireless effect-based detection of endocrine-disrupting chemicals with nanoYES platform.