PECASE: Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARG) as Emerging Pollutants in Our Water: Pathways, Mitigation, and Treatment

普鲁登0547342这项研究开启了一种新的范式，将精氨酸、蛋白、蓖麻毒素、炭疽等生物分子视为“污染物”。这样的生物分子越来越受到社会的健康和安全关注，这项计划将有助于开辟新的缓解和治疗方法。使用基因组工具而不是基于培养的方法直接将ARG作为污染物进行研究是这项研究的一个创新方面。在过去的两年里，PI一直在研究ARG在科罗拉多州前缘分水岭的传播，这为研究药物对环境的影响提供了一个很好的模式系统，因为主要来源是融雪，人为输入最少。因此，PI是唯一有可能在这项研究中取得成功并对该领域做出重大贡献的机构。机构支持很多，包括新装修的实验室、减轻的教学负担、助教支持、旅行资金和指导。这个项目的智力优势将为教学、培训和学习提供坚实的基础。将MB&A；B纳入工程课程的新课程将得到进一步开发、评估和改进。基于探究的学习和有实验室组成部分的同行学习对于培训跨学科领域的工程师将特别有价值。合并活动还将具体解决妇女和少数群体代表性的需要，将重点放在已证明能够吸引代表性不足群体的专题上。研究生也将从合并中受益，他们作为本科生的导师积极参与，并带头发表和展示他们的研究结果。此外，学生还将帮助组织K-12 STEM(科学、技术、工程和数学)外展活动。结果将通过与其他科罗拉多州/怀俄明州大学以及与欧洲合作者(巴塞罗那大学和国家农业研究所)合作举办的讲习班广泛传播。最后，总体结果将被总结为最佳管理做法(BMP)，这将是对农业和水专业人员有用的实用指南。这些活动被认为有益于社会，因为它们将在让环境工程师参与帮助解决被世界卫生组织(世卫组织)确定为本世纪最紧迫的健康问题之一的关键问题方面迈出重要的一步。

Pruden 0547342 This research opens a new paradigm of viewing biomolecules, such as ARG, prions, ricin, anthrax, etc., as "pollutants". Biomolecules such as these are of increasing health and security concern to society and this program will help to open new approaches to mitigation and treatment. Investigating ARG directly as pollutants using genome-enabled tools, rather than culture-based methods, is an innovative aspect of this research. For the past two years the PI has been studying the spread of ARG in the front range Colorado watershed, which provides an excellent model system for studying the impacts of pharmaceuticals in the environment because the primary source is snowmelt with minimal anthropogenic input. Thus the PI is uniquely poised to succeed in this research and to make significant contributions to the field. Institutional support is substantial, including newly renovated labs, reduced teaching loads, TA support, travel funding, and mentoring.The intellectual merit of this project will provide a firm foundation for teaching, training and learning. New courses that integrate MB&B into the engineering curriculum will be further developed, evaluated, and improved. Inquiry-based learning and peer-learning with a laboratory component will be especially valuable for training engineers in an interdisciplinary field. MERGE activities will also specifically address the need for representation of women and minorities by focusing on topics that have been demonstrated to attract underrepresented groups. Graduate students will also benefit from MERGE by actively participating as mentors to undergraduate students and in taking the lead in publishing and presenting the results of their research. Furthermore, students will help organize K-12 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) outreach activities. Results will be broadly disseminated through conducting workshops in partnership with other Colorado/Wyoming universities and withEuropean collaborators (University of Barcelona and Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique). Finally, the overall results will be summarized as best management practices (BMPs), which will be a helpful practical guide to farming and water professionals. The activities are considered to be beneficial to society in that they will take an important step in involving environmental engineers in helping solve a critical problem that has been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the most pressing health issues of this century.