Is the water safe to drink? The rapid test is the missing link!

Abstract Globally, contaminated drinking water causes 2.2 billion illnesses and over 200,000 deaths in children annually. Current water tests are time consuming, require laboratory settings, and detect fecal indicator bacteria, which does not reliably indicate water safety. To address these gaps and answer the UNICEF challenge, a field-based water test was developed, which uses three portable devices: a water concentrator, a Bento Lab, and the Oxford Nanopore DNA sequencer — the MinION. In this method, 10 liters of water are processed in the concentrator where bacteria bind to affinity capture beads. After isolating the bead–bacteria complexes, bacterial DNA is extracted, amplified via PCR, and sequenced to identify all bacteria, including pathogens. The test, performed at the water source, takes nine hours. Analysis of two Ontario lakes confirmed the presence of multiple pathogenic bacterial species, which were verified by culture-based methods. This innovative test offers a transformative solution to the global water contamination challenge. Biography Noah is a high school student, committed to bettering the lives of marginalized groups and focussing on preventative health. He is founder of the Make a Move Foundation, launching the Hypertension 101 initiative and providing free blood pressure cuffs and seminars to communities across Ontario. Using the Oxford Nanopore MinION DNA sequencer, he has developed a rapid lakeside water quality test to determine bacterial pathogens, thereby tackling a leading cause of mortality in African children. He enjoys coaching tennis and music composition.