DETROIT (AP) — A Wayne State University researcher has received an $823,000 grant to develop a device that ships can carry to avoid bringing invasive species into the Great Lakes.

Medical School professor Jeffrey Ram is using funding from the Great Lakes Protection Fund for the automated ballast water treatment project.

The university says his team will seek to develop an automated, shipboard, rapid-testing system that will be able to immediately report the presence of any live organisms in ballast water after it has been treated.

The researchers are applying automation technology to adapt chemistry now used to detect live salt water organisms to fresh water samples from the Detroit River and elsewhere in the Great Lakes.

Posted 12/26/2012