Monitoring water quality through Microbial Source Tracking (MST) is important in protecting public health and environmental resources. MST is the process of examining water samples for pathogenic organisms using a variety of techniques, including Antibiotic Resistances Assays (ARAs), molecular methods (such as PCR or sequencing), or direct pathogen culture and identification.
The objectives of the EP research stream is thus to investigate and profile local water systems in order to gain a better understanding of the microbial populations. Students will be directly responsible for:
1) Processing contaminated water samples in order to isolate both whole bacterial organisms for culture as well as DNA and/or RNA from whatever contaminating organisms are present, including bacteria, viruses, parasites and/or other eukaryotic unicellular organisms.
2) Using molecular methods such as PCR and sequencing or direct microbiological culturing to identify the species present.
3) Use this this information to assess the health and safety of a given water supply for use in things like agricultural irrigation, consuming fish or other seafood products, and/or recreation, as well as determine if current regulations are sufficient to control potentially pathogenic organisms from contaminating the water supply.
Student will work individually and within small groups. Projects will vary depending on the results of the previous semester(s). For the spring 2017 semester, students will be working on one of the following projects:
- Examining non-traditional water sources used in agricultural irrigation for pathogen contamination, including
- Identification of pathogenic species
- Susceptibility of pathogens to antibiotics/antimicrobials
- Overall water quality
- Comparing the of E. coli isolated from water with different environmental conditions, including salinity (comparing brackish versus fresh water), pH/acidity, and nutrient burden and examining the following
- Virulence genes profiles and subsequent pathotype identification
- Virulence gene expression
- Microbial source tracking
Data will be recorded here
The Peer Mentor schedule can be viewed here:
Spring 2017 Peer Mentors Schedule
Lab hours can be tracked here:
Water Sampling data can be seen and recorded on the MDBio map
UMD FIRE EP Stream 