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

9702165 Hernandez虽然许多研究工作已经针对水生和陆地微生物过程的特征，但从工程角度研究空气污染的微生物方面的工作相对较少。快速、定量、微观气溶胶分析将用于表征悬浮在室内空气中的细菌和真菌的活力、特性和分布。使用直接外延荧光显微镜，这项工作的目标是准确地表征空气中普遍存在于商业和住宅气溶胶的细胞和亚细胞微生物成分的浓度。这项工作将侧重于实验室室内研究和实地测量，以确定室内常见的空气传播微生物的生物稳定性。这里的生物稳定性定义为微生物保持其代谢能力和物理完整性的能力；它不构成被培养分离或量化的能力。本项目的总体目标是扩展和改进与现代土木与环境工程实践相关的微生物学研究和教学。作为一个教育目标，一个新的应用环境微生物学系列课程正在开发永久整合到土木/环境工程课程在科罗拉多大学。这个系列将包括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来组织，并在一个全新的、最先进的工程设施中教授，该设施专门设计用于将计算机辅助、多媒体演示与课堂教学相结合（综合教学实验室（ITLL））。本科水平的课程将提供了解工程系统中微生物过程和生态学所需的基础知识。研究生课程将分析环境微生物学的应用，强调现代分子生物学与土木、卫生、岩土和大气工程之间的联系。应用课程将集中研究生活供水、废水处理、含水层/土壤生物修复、生物污染、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应用微生物学的工作知识，并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对理解人类暴露于空气中微生物有几个重要的意义，同时扩大环境工程课程，将大气环境作为一个生物圈。这项工作的预期效益源于一种强大的显微技术的发展，这种技术能够对常用的廉价采样设备进行相对较小的修改，从而进行严格的微生物表征。直接显微测量为工艺评价和流行病学研究提供了良好的基础，已广泛应用于水处理工程和健康科学。这些视觉技术提供了绝对测量，提供了更准确的生物气溶胶图像，而不是基于富集的对应物，因为营养选择和培养性不会影响结果。直接气溶胶显微镜的应用包括一种可靠的方法来评估工程鉴定方法的有效性，以帮助控制室内气溶胶中常见的微生物和/或它们的碎片。使用广泛接受的荧光生物探针和荧光遗传探针，该技术还将用于确定生物气溶胶的生态结构以及各种病原体的存在和活性。该项目将直接将生物气溶胶研究纳入新的环境工程微生物学课程，以及机械工程和公共卫生课程。这个项目将试行新部门作为“建筑作为实验室”的功能，在土木和环境工程的背景下教授应用环境微生物学。＊＊＊

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. ***