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

Pruden 0547342这项研究开启了观察生物分子的新范式，如ARG、朊病毒、蓖麻毒素、炭疽等，“污染物”。诸如此类的生物分子对社会的健康和安全问题日益关注，该计划将有助于开辟缓解和治疗的新方法。使用基因组工具直接调查ARG作为污染物，而不是基于文化的方法，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在前山脉科罗拉多流域的传播，这为研究药物对环境的影响提供了一个很好的模型系统，因为主要来源是融雪，人为输入最少。因此，PI是唯一准备在这项研究中取得成功，并作出重大贡献的领域。机构的支持是实质性的，包括新装修的实验室，减少教学负担，助教支持，旅行资金，和指导。这个项目的智力价值将为教学，培训和学习提供坚实的基础。 将MB B融入工程课程的新课程将得到进一步开发、评估和改进。基于探究的学习和具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特别有价值。合并和两性平等活动还将具体解决妇女和少数群体代表性的需要，重点关注已证明能吸引代表性不足群体的专题。研究生也将受益于合并积极参与导师本科生，并率先发表和展示他们的研究成果。此外，学生将帮助组织K-12 STEM（科学，技术，工程和数学）外展活动。将通过与其他科罗拉多/怀俄明州大学和欧洲合作者（巴塞罗那大学和国家农学研究所）合作举办讲习班，广泛传播成果。 最后，总体结果将被总结为最佳管理实践（BMPs），这将是一个有用的实用指南，农业和水的专业人士。这些活动被认为是有益于社会的，因为它们将迈出重要的一步，使环境工程师参与帮助解决一个被世界卫生组织（卫生组织）确定为本世纪最紧迫的健康问题之一的关键问题。

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.