Our project Portpath had the goal to develop an instrument to identify microbial pathogens in their natural environment based on their characteristic movement pattern (motility). While the current state-of-the-art detection methods for pathogens have high demands on the equipment and on the expertise of the investigating person, take several hours and are very expensive, PortPath presents a completely new approach for the detection of pathogens using automated analysis. PortPath is not only much faster and cheaper than previous detection methods but can also be used by non-medical laypersons. We developed a detection software together with low-cost hardware to show whether pathogens are present in a water sample. We patented our invention as part of the project (“Development of an optical instrument to determine bioparticles in a fluid medium with the help of a smartphone”) and built a prototype which we successfully tested in the laboratory and under field conditions in a developing country. However, more research is needed for commercialization. The major scientific hurdle being that some microbes have to be “motivated” to move for their motility to be analyzed (which is achieved by inserting specific chemical compounds into the environment). One major regulatory hurdle are permits that need to be obtained for pathogen identification in the environmental and medical fields. Thus, we see commercialization initially more targeted toward education purposes (e.g. biology teachers in high school), for the tourism and outdoor industry, and for evaluating sperm motility and viability. However, once the full potential of our invention is attained, it could help to save many lives, especially in developing countries, where the fatality rate from Vibrio cholerae alone exceeds 100,000 deaths per year.
