CAREER: Bioaerosols in Environmental Engineeing: A Career Development Plan to Expand Teaching and Research into Microbial Air Pollution

9702165埃尔南德斯虽然许多研究工作已经针对表征水生和陆生微生物过程，但相对较少的工作从工程角度接近空气污染的微生物方面。 将使用快速、定量、显微镜气溶胶测定来表征室内空气中悬浮的细菌和真菌的活力、身份和分布。 使用直接落射荧光显微镜，本研究的目标是 工作 是 到 准确地表征 的 在商业和住宅气溶胶中普遍存在的细胞和亚细胞微生物成分的气载浓度。 这项工作将侧重于实验室研究和现场测量，以确定室内常见的空气微生物的生物稳定性。 生物稳定性在此定义为微生物保持其代谢能力和物理完整性的能力;它不构成通过培养分离或定量的能力。 该项目的总体目标是扩大和改善与现代土木和环境工程实践密切相关的微生物学研究和教学。 作为一个教育目标，一个新的课程系列应用环境微生物学正在 发达 为 永久 一体化 成 科罗拉多大学的土木/环境工程课程。 该系列将包括一个总的 的 四个本科和研究生水平的课程，包括相关的实验室。 这些课程将根据一种新颖的，基于问题的合作学习形式进行结构化，并在一个全新的，最先进的工程设施中进行教学，该设施专门设计用于将联合收割机计算机辅助，多媒体演示与课堂教学相结合。 指令 （综合 教学 和 学习实验室（ITLL））。 本科水平的课程将提供所需的基础知识，以了解工程系统中的微生物过程和生态学。 研究生水平的课程将分析环境微生物学的应用，强调 现代 分子 生物学 和 公民， 卫生、岩土工程和大气工程。 应用课程将深入研究家庭供水，废水处理，含水层/土壤生物修复，生物污垢，工业腐蚀和空气污染的微生物学。 这些课程有双重目的：它们旨在为实践土木工程师和其他环境科学家提供工作知识 应用微生物学，以及提供 为研究型学生提供课程、实验室和文献基础。 这项工作的结果可能有几个重要的影响，了解人类暴露于空气中的微生物，同时扩大环境工程课程，包括作为生物圈的大气环境。 这项工作的预期效益源于一个强大的显微镜技术的发展，能够严格的微生物表征与常用的，廉价的采样设备相对较小的修改。 直接显微测量已广泛应用于水处理工程和健康科学，因为它们为过程评价和流行病学提供了上级基础。 问题研究 这些视觉 技术 提供绝对测量，提供更准确的生物气溶胶图片 比 其浓缩基础 同行 因为营养选择和培养能力不会使结果产生偏差。 直接气溶胶显微镜的应用包括一种可靠的手段来评估工程灌溉方法的有效性，以帮助控制室内气溶胶中存在的常见微生物和/或其片段。 使用广泛接受的荧光生物染色剂和荧光基因探针，该技术还将用于确定生物气溶胶的生态结构以及各种生物气溶胶的存在和活性。 的 病原体 该项目将直接整合生物气溶胶 研究 成 新 环境 工程微生物学课程， 提供 在机械工程和公共卫生领域。 该项目将作为“建筑实验室”服务的新手臂的试点 功能 为 教学 应用 土木和环境工程背景下的环境微生物学。 ***

9702165 Hernandez While much research effort is already directed at characterizing aquatic and terrestrial microbial processes, relatively little work has approached microbiological aspects of air pollution from an engineering perspective. Rapid, quantitative, microscopic aerosol assays will be used to characterize the viability, identity and distribution of bacteria and fungi suspended in indoor air. Using direct epi-fluorescent microscopy, the goal of this work is to accurately characterize the airborne concentrations of cellular and sub-cellular microbial components prevalent in commercial and residential aerosols. The work will focus on both laboratory chamber studies and field measurements to determine the biostability of airborne microorganisms commonly encountered indoors. Biostability is defined here as the ability of microorganisms to retain their metabolic capabilities and their physical integrity; it does not constitute the ability to be isolated or quantified by culture. The overall goal of this project is to expand and improve the research and teaching of microbiology germane to modern civil and environmental engineering practice. As an educational goal, a new coursework series on applied environmental microbiology is being developed for permanent integration into the civil/environmental engineering curricula at the University of Colorado. This series will consist of a total of four undergraduate and graduate level courses, including associated laboratories. The courses will be structured according to a novel, problem-based cooperative learning format and taught in a brand new, state-of-the-art engineering facility specifically designed to combine computer aided, multi-media presentation with classroom instruction (Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory (ITLL)). The undergraduate level courses will provide fundamentals needed to und erstand microbial processes and ecology in engineered systems. The graduate level courses will analyze environmental microbiology applications emphasizing the interface between modem molecular biology and civil, sanitary, geotechnical, and atmospheric engineering. The applications courses will intensively examine the microbiology of domestic water supply, wastewater treatment, aquifer/soil bioremediation, biofouling, industrial corrosion, and air pollution. The courses have a dual purpose: they are designed to prepare practicing civil engineers and other environmental scientists with a working knowledge of applied microbiology, as well as provide a coursework, laboratory and literature foundation for research oriented students. Results from this work may have several important implications for understanding human exposure to airborne microorganisms while expanding environmental engineering curricula to include the atmospheric environment as a biosphere. The projected benefits of this work stem from the development of a robust microscopic technique capable of stringent microbial characterization with relatively minor modifications to commonly used, inexpensive sampling equipment. Direct microscopic measurements have been widely adopted in water treatment engineering and health sciences as they provide a superior basis for process evaluations and epidemiological studies. These visual techniques provide absolute measurements that offer a more accurate picture of bioaerosols than their enrichment based counterparts as nutritional selection and culturabihty do not bias the results. Applications of direct aerosol microscopy include a reliable means to evaluate the effectiveness of engineered rnitigation methods to help control common microorganisms and/or their fragments present in indoor aerosols. Using widely accepted fluorescent biological s tains and fluorescent genetic probes, the technique will also be applied to determine the ecological structure of bioaerosols and the presence and activity of a wide range of pathogens. The project will directly integrate bioaerosol research into new environmental engineering microbiology courses as well as into courses offered in mechanical engineering and public health. This project will serve to pilot the new arm in its service as a "building as laboratory" function for teaching applied environmental microbiology in a civil and environmental engineering context. ***