EAGER: A Molecular Tool to Measure Mold Exposure and Remediation Effectiveness in Water-damaged Buildings

2017年，飓风哈维、玛丽亚和厄玛造成的损失和洪水造成2650亿美元。更广泛地说，几乎一半的美国家庭将遭受洪水，潮湿和漏水的水管损坏。潮湿的石膏灰胶纸夹板、木材和混凝土会促进家中霉菌的生长，导致婴儿、儿童和成人哮喘、过敏和其他呼吸道疾病。即使被洪水淹没的房屋被干燥和清洁，隐藏在墙壁，踢脚板和地板上的空间往往保留水和霉菌。由于清洁效果的不确定性，洪水过后的一年，被洪水淹没的房屋的财产价值下降了50%以上。这项研究的目的是建立一个实用和负担得起的工具来衡量，如果建筑修复已删除由于洪水事件增长的霉菌。该工具使用房屋灰尘的比较DNA序列分析来将房屋分类为干燥或发霉。该项目将产生一个工具或测试套件，房主，行业和政府救济机构可以用来确定是否需要修复房屋，或者如果被洪水淹没的房屋已恢复到健康状态。私人补救公司和公共灾害和救济机构使用该项目产生的工具，在保护人类健康、维护洪水后的财产价值和改善我国对洪水事件的反应方面具有巨大潜力。 当洪水或室外降水事件期间水渗透到房屋中时，建筑材料水活性的增加使真菌能够在室内表面生长。建筑物内可见的真菌生长和潮湿始终与婴儿、儿童和成人的呼吸和过敏性健康影响相关。即使经过补救，家中隐藏的空间也往往保持水分和真菌生长，给居民带来慢性健康风险，并造成财产价值损失。这些影响对我国人口中经济脆弱的部分最为严重。 目前还没有可用的，准确的方法或测试，以确定是否家庭暴露于真菌从水损坏的材料发生，或者如果水损坏的家庭可以被认为是无霉菌后补救。由于缺乏统一的衡量标准而造成的不确定性使房主和救济机构依赖于主观的和可能不必要的清洁，修复和补救建议;以及潜在的财产贬值和个人财富损失。这项研究的目标是建立一个实用的，负担得起的，定量的工具，用于两个目的。第一次评估是否暴露于真菌从水损害已经发生在一个家庭。第二，确定建筑修复是否消除了在水入侵事件中产生的真菌暴露。该工具基于比较DNA序列分析，以确定由于建筑物潮湿而导致的家庭真菌群落的变化。为了创造这种潜在的变革性工具，该研究项目将专注于使用计算生物学方法开发家庭采样科学，这些方法可以识别真菌生态学中的细微差异。成功完成这项研究可以改变我们国家对洪水的反应和财政风险。2017年，飓风哈维、玛丽亚和厄玛造成的结构性破坏和洪水造成了2650亿美元的损失。通过提供定量的措施来评估修复的需要和成功，这项研究可以保护人类健康，保持洪水后的财产价值，并改善我们国家对洪水事件的反应。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In 2017, damage and flooding from Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma cost $265 billion. More broadly, almost one half of U.S. homes will incur water damage from floods, humidity, and leaky plumbing. Wet sheetrock, wood, and concrete promote the growth of mold in homes, which causes asthma, allergies, and other respiratory disease in infants, children, and adults. Even when flooded homes are dried and cleaned, hidden spaces in walls, baseboards, and floors often retain water and mold. Due to uncertainties in cleaning effectiveness, the property value of a flooded home decreases by more than 50% in the year after a flood. The purpose of this research is to build a practical and affordable tool to measure if building remediation has removed mold that grew due to a flooding event. The tool uses comparative DNA sequence analyses of house dust to classify a home as dry or moldy. This project will produce a tool or test kit that homeowners, industry, and government relief agencies could use to determine whether a home needs remediation, or if a flooded home has been restored to a healthy state. Use of the tool resulting from this project by private remediation companies and public disaster and relief agencies has great potential to protect human health, maintain property values after floods, and improve our Nation's response to flooding events. When water penetrates into homes during flooding or outdoor precipitation events, the increase in building material water activity enables the growth of fungi on indoor surfaces. Visible fungal growth and moisture inside buildings is consistently associated with respiratory and allergic health effects in infants, children, and adults. Even when remediated, hidden spaces in homes often retain moisture and fungal growth, producing chronic health risks among residents and loss in property values. These impacts are most severe for the economically vulnerable fraction of our population. Currently there is no available, accurate approach or test to determine if home exposure to fungi from water damaged material occurs, or if a water damaged home can be considered mold-free after remediation. Uncertainty caused by the lack of uniform metrics leaves home owners and relief agencies reliant upon subjective and possibly unneeded recommendations for cleaning, restoration, and remediation; and potential property devaluations and loss of personal wealth. The goal of this proposed research is to build a practical, affordable, and quantitative tool for two purposes. First to assess whether exposure to fungi from water damage has occurred in a home. Second, to determine if building remediation has removed exposure to fungi that originated during a water intrusion event. The tool is based on comparative DNA sequence analysis to identify changes in home fungal communities due to building dampness. To create this potentially transformative tool, the research project will focus on developing the science of home sampling using computational biology approaches that can identify subtle differences in fungal ecology. Successful completion of this research can transform our Nation's response and financial exposure to flooding. In 2017, structural damage and flooding from Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma cost $265 billion. By providing quantitative measures from which to assess both the need for remediation and its success, this research can protect human health, maintain property values after floods, and improve our Nation's response to flooding events.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.