MU to test waters with EPA grant
Researchers will work toward better detecting the bad stuff
Published Sept. 9, 2008
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Sept. 4 that it would award $600,000 to MU to develop technology to analyze drinking water for microorganisms and harmful chemicals.
"When successfully completed, we hope (this) innovative research project will provide a rapid and economical means to quantitatively detect multiple pathogens, their metabolic status and responses to disinfection treatment-all highly useful to water utilities and industry," EPA environmental scientist Barbara Klieforth said.
The EPA extends these grants through the Science to Achieve Results program every two to three years. Zhiqiang Hu, lead investigator in the research project that received the grant, said in an e-mail that the selection process to receive the funding is extremely competitive.
Hu said the National Center for Environmental Research manages the STAR program. The money given by the NCER is part of a collaborative agreement to fund initiatives to support environmental and health research.
"The objectives of this research are to evaluate a new method to rapidly concentrate pathogens in water (and to) develop and validate a method...for rapid pathogen detection and quantification," Hu said.
Klieforth said the EPA plans to use this research in conjunction with its own pathogen detection methods.
"Dr. Hu's research nicely complements EPA's research program, since none of the methods being tested are being worked on by EPA laboratories," Klieforth said.
Mengshi Lin, an MU researcher currently working on the project, said the project will use Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy to "detect trace amounts of waterborne pathogenic microorganisms in water quickly and accurately."
Researchers use SERS to identify substances by measuring the spectrum of light emitted and absorbed by them, according to an introductory article published in 2006 by chemical researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara.
"[SERS] is a rapid, ultra-sensitive and powerful analytical technique which could reach a limit of detection potentially to the parts-per-billion level or even a single molecule level," Lin said.
The project abstract stated that this method, combined with other "complementary and nondestructive techniques" will be used to concentrate, detect and classify waterborne pathogens and will be beneficial to public water utilities.