GOALI: Developing an Eco-Genomic Framework for Biofilter Operation.

生物过滤器使用自然产生的微生物来过滤和去除饮用水中的污染物，而不需要消毒化学品。由于担心有害微生物会被释放到饮用水中，生物过滤的采用受到了阻碍。克服这一担忧将有助于为这项技术的广泛采用铺平道路。该项目的目标是开发一种新的框架来控制生物滤池微生物群落。这样的控制将允许管理生物滤池的性能。为了实现这一目标，研究团队将利用最先进的基因组技术进行实验室和中试实验，以丰富有益的微生物。该项目团队包括饮用水处理、生物过滤和微生物生态方面的专家。学术和产业合作将有助于加快研究向全面工业实施的过渡。生物滤池的运行是由化学和微生物终点指导的，但目前的生物滤池控制方法缺乏管理微生物群落所需的细微差别。考虑到这种缺乏控制，难怪对生物滤池微生物如何影响生物滤池性能的了解很少，甚至根本不知道。这一知识差距，再加上对用生物滤池微生物播种供水系统的担忧，一直是这项技术大规模工业采用的主要绊脚石。为了克服这一障碍，该项目将开发用于控制生物滤池微生物群落的新型生态基因组框架(EGF)。这个项目的重点是使用EGF来定制生物滤池微生物群落，以提高过滤后的消毒效果，同时保持生物滤池的性能。初步的EGF研究结果表明，微生物的消毒抵抗力与生物滤池微生物中氮素物种的可用性和由此产生的遗传应激反应有关。该项目将对EGF预测进行实验测试：1)建立氮物种有效性与生物滤池微生物施加的氮胁迫反应之间的关系；2)定量地将氮胁迫反应与消毒抗性联系起来；3)优化生物过滤器中氮物种的有效性，以最大限度地提高消毒效果，同时将潜在的有害影响降至最低。这些目标将通过实验室和中试规模的实验以及最先进的分子、生物信息学和统计学方法来实现。该项目的成果将作为新型EGF用于生物滤池操作的概念证明，由具有生产性合作记录的学术和工业研究人员领导，从而增加成功开发和工业部署EGF的可能性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Biofilters use naturally-occurring microorganisms to filter and remove pollutants in drinking water without the need for disinfectant chemicals. Adoption of biofiltration is hindered by concerns that undesirable microorganisms will be released into the drinking water. Overcoming this concern would help pave the way for wide-scale adoption of this technology. The goal of this project is to develop a novel framework to control the biofilter microbial community. Such control will allow management of biofilter performance. To achieve this goal, the research team will perform laboratory and pilot-scale experiments using state-of-the-art genomic techniques to enrich beneficial microorganisms. The project team includes experts in drinking water treatment, biofiltration, and microbial ecology. The academic and industrial collaboration will help speed the transition of research to full-scale industrial implementation. Biofilter operation is guided by chemical and microbiological endpoints, yet current biofilter control approaches lack the nuance necessary for managing microbial communities. Considering this lack of control, it is no surprise that there is little to no knowledge of how biofilter microbes contribute to biofilter performance. This knowledge gap coupled with concerns about the seeding of the water distribution system with biofilter microbes has been a major stumbling block for the wide-scale industrial adoption of this technology. To overcome this barrier, this project will develop the novel Eco-Genomic Framework (EGF) for controlling the biofilter microbial community. This project focusses on using the EGF to tailor the biofilter microbial community to enhance post-filtration disinfection efficacy while maintaining biofilter performance. Preliminary EGF research results suggest that microbial disinfection resistance is associated with nitrogen species availability and resultant genetic stress response in biofilter microorganisms. This project will experimentally test EGF predictions 1) to establish a relationship between nitrogen species availability and nitrogen stress response exerted by biofilter microbes, 2) quantitatively link nitrogen stress response and disinfection resistance, and 3) optimize nitrogen species availability in the biofilter to maximize disinfection efficacy while minimizing potential deleterious impacts. These objectives will be accomplished through laboratory- and pilot-scale experiments coupled with state-of-the-art molecular, bioinformatics, and statistical approaches. The outcomes of this project will serve as proof of concept for the utility of the novel EGF for biofilter operation led by academic and industrial researchers with a track record of productive collaboration, thus increasing the likelihood of successful EGF development and industrial deployment.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.