Joan B. Rose - US grants

The existence of dissolved DNA in the marine environment has been well documented. Recently, viruses have been shown to be an important biological component of the dissolved fraction of seawater.It is not known what proportion of the dissolved DNA is truly soluble DNA or DNA encapsulated within a virus particle. Differentiation and quantitation of the soluble DNA and the intact virions in the environment is important for both ecological and genetic reasons. From the ecological perspective, soluble DNA is a form of nucleic acid precursors for macromolecular biosynthesis. Viruses no doubt contribute to dissolved DNA and organic carbon production and control the microbial population by lysing their hosts. Dr. Paul will develop methods to separate and quantitate viral particles from free DNA in the water column. This study will lead to methodology for the rapid isolation of viruses for future study.

This award will support collaborative research in environmental engineering between Dr. Joan Rose, University of South Florida and Dr. Jeni Colbourne, Thames Water Authority, New River Head Laboratories, London, England. The objectives of the project are to develop strategies for assessing the occurence and concentrations of enteric protozoa in potable water supplies, and then to apply risk assessment models for the development of control approaches for water engineers in the US and UK. Recently, two large waterborne outbreaks of Cryptosporidium have occured in the US and the UK in water systems which treat the water by coagulation, filtration and disinfection in the absence of any violation of standards. The proposed research will evaluate protozoan contamination (Cryptosporidium in particular) of the Thames Water Authority's catchment basin, comparing gene probe technology to immunofluorescent techniques. Specifically, the investigators will: 1) compare gene probes for rapid detection of cysts to the immunofluorescent techniques currently used for water samples collected during a survey of catchment basin, 2) evaluate the capability of the various treatments to remove Cryptosporidium cysts and Giardia cysts, and 3) apply a risk assessment model based on cyst concentrations in source waters and potential treatment to define the health impact. The results of this research will promote communication on a common problem facing the water industry, assist in developing and standardizing procedures for assessing environmental protozoan contamination and define appropriate treatment approaches which will help eliminate waterborne Cryptosporidisis. The project will benefir from the complementary expertise of the two, investigators: Dr. Rose has had significant involvement with surveys for Cryptosporidium and Giardia in water, as well as with the development of immunoflourescent techniques. Dr. Colbourne has developed standardized procedures for parasite recovery and detection.

PROGRAM: Academic Research Infrastructure Program Summary: The Academic Research Infrastructure (ARI) program supports 1) acquisition or development of major research instrumentation, and/or 2) repair, renovation, or in exceptional cases, replacement of obsolete science and engineering research facilities. This proposal from the University of South Florida (USF) requests funds to purchase an transmission electron microscope. The instrument will be operated as a shared-use facility to support research and teaching efforts of scientists in the St. Petersburg/Tampa area at USF and Eckerd College. The instrument will be housed in the new Marine Science Building at USF, and USF will provide a full-time technician to support the instrument. The University will also supply matching funds to purchase the instrument.

Molecular techniques have revolutionized many areas of biological oceanography. Research on topics ranging from genetic biodiversity of viruses and fishes, the molecular regulation of photosynthetic carbon fixation, and stress responses in foraminifera is being conducted by investigators at the University of South Florida's Department of Marine Science. Instrumentation is requested to augment these ongoing studies and to stimulate new areas of research on the genetics and molecular biology of marine organisms. The instrumentation requested includes a Molecular Imaging System for quantitative molecular probing, Fluorescence Microscopy Imaging Systems for rapid analysis of fluorescently stained or autofluorescent samples, and a Preparative Ultracentrifuge for a myriad of uses in cell, micro- and molecular biology. None of the requested instrumentation currently exists on our campus and its acquisition will greatly improve our capabilities to understand molecular aspects of life in the oceans.

9554493 Coble The Oceanography Camp for Girls (OCG) was developed jointly by the University of South Florida's Department of Marine Science (USF DMS) and the Pinellas County School System to encourage career interest in the sciences for young women posed to enter high school. Oceanography was chosen because of its inherent interdisciplinary nature, requiring a familiarity with the four "hard" sciences--biology, chemistry, geology and physics, as well as a foundation in mathematics. As such, the camp reflects the areas of study in which women are most often underrepresented, and allows young women to use the knowledge gained from hands-on activities and to apply it to a tangible marine environment in their own "backyard." This environmental "bridging" is accomplished via cruises aboard a research vessel for data collection, field trips, and in-depth, practical laboratory explorations. The uniqueness of this educational program derives its focus, not only from real-world environmental studies and awareness, but also from one-on-one mentoring of middle school girls by women who are already established in scientific fields. This project would significantly expand and refine the camp experience. Annually, the OCG has reached only 30 young women residing in Pinellas County. The target population beyond Pinellas County allows a new population of young women residing within a six county radius to benefit from this experience. Additional components of the expansion and refinement of this program include: 1) modification of the program format to accommodate a residential component, increase interactions between student role models and camp participants; 2) addressing the numerous leaks along the education pipeline to directly improve access and retention of women in the sciences; 3) providing teacher training to enhance science education at secondary levels; 4) increasing collaborative efforts between public and private research facilities statewide; and 5) serving as a m odel program for others, offering training materials to pilot similar programs regionally. The demonstration of the provision of services to female students includes: a summer science program, use of technology in instruction, technical assistance, development of a curriculum addressing needs and interests of female students, improvement of individualized instruction in the classroom, collaborations between secondary schools, university and governmental organizations, and dissemination of information gathered over both short-term and long-term review processes. The target population for this program is young women who have successfully completed seventh grade. This is a critical time when girls experience a loss of self-confidence and need positive encouragement in their pursuits of math and science. The rationale is that the camp experience will motivate participants to select more math and science courses and seriously consider the sciences as a career option. ***

9502775 Paul The overall objective of this research project is to understand the significance of lysogeny in the marine environment. Toward that end, the proposal addresses three questions: How prevalent is lysogeny in the marine environment? What environmental factors control or influence the lysogenic decision? and Why does lysogeny impart a competitive (or does it impart) over nonlysogens? These studies will be performed with populations and isolates collected along a trophic gradient from estuarine to oligotrophic surface waters of the southeastern Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic Bight and from surface waters to deep aphotic environments. The research will address environmental factors that have been shown to influence the "lysogenic decision" (nutrient status, pressure, temperature, mutagenic radiation and xenobiotics) on natural populations and lysogenic isolates. Finally the research will examine if the presence of a prophage in a bacterium results in a competitive advantage as determined by growth rates and expression of prophage encoded genes. Overall this study will provide insight into many of these processes and expand the knowledge of the interactions of viruses with the rest of the water column microbial community. ***

9552898 Coble The University of South Florida (Tampa) will initiate a five-week summer commuter Young Scholars program serving thirty young women entering 8th grade in the summers of 1997 and 1998. The disciplinary focus of the program is marine science, emphasizing biology, chemistry, geology, and physics, with mathematics applications. The students experience field trips, a data collection cruise on a research vessel, and laboratory experiments. Female USF faculty and graduate mentors serve as role models. Also to be initiated is an Mathematics and Science Teaching Perspectives component to provide opportunities for research and learning opportunities for six middle school teachers. In addition to completing research the teachers will develop lessons to take back to their classroom, thus impacting a greater number of students.

0216305 Paul The objective of this research is to develop a sensor to detect enteric viruses that will have application to provide real-time monitoring of problem microorganisms in coastal waters. Solid phase immobilization of target mRNA, amplification and detection by means of microbial beacons is the plan that these investigators have. Each of these steps is available technology. Putting them together to provide real time monitoring of enteric viruses, and modeling the data to determine predictive patterns of enteroviral release to the environment as a function of environmental perturbation and climate variability is to be done with this grant.

Learning from Adaptable Water Systems

Michigan is a state where climate change is likely to increase the amount and variability of precipitation and water flows. A significant portion of these increased flows will pass through stormwater and wastewater infrastructures thus impacting ecosystem functions and potentially affecting public health. Increased flows are also likely to exacerbate water quality problems associated with flooding, point and non-point pollution, and the quality of ecosystems, drinking water sources and recreational water throughout the state. Urban and rural water systems are at the interface between these increased flows and the response of the human system and economy.
This project addresses how urban and rural water systems adapt to environmental changes and how these adaptations affect water quality, health and economic opportunities. In particular, the focus is on wastewater and storm /sewer infrastructure and technology as well as governance systems and conflicts that arise in complex watersheds. These issues are being addressed in two contrasting watersheds, the Grand River and the Lake St. Clair, that capture the diversity of the state?s water resources and issues. As financial decisions can be made at the state, county or often local level for wastewater, storm water and drinking water, it is important that research address these scales of interaction and decision making when addressing governance and water.

A road map for conducting research to better understand future risk to water quality and health in these watersheds is being developed, resulting in a series of published papers. These products are addressing possible adaptations, mitigations and potential opportunities under a 'blue economy' and future climate change. Information on data needs and sources as well as on models, tools and techniques are being gathered via a series of 1 day workshops focusing on seven areas associated with the community capital framework (CCF). The seven focus areas are: human capital addressing knowledge, skills and abilities of people; social capital including networks of trust and relationships; political capital capturing relationships between the public and political organizations; cultural capital addressing the state and world view; financial capital and funds available for investment in the future; built capital including water infrastructure and technology; and natural capital which includes ecosystems, ecosystem services and human habitat (eg beaches, parks). The CCF allows for the development of research designs that integrate the social, economic, infrastructural, and natural factors in assessing the effects of climate change on these watersheds. The team includes faculty and graduate students and is engaging the public, particularly Native American stakeholders, government officials, and relevant industries. Because of the cross-boundary nature of the water issues in the region, international participation from Canada is included. A unique community captial framework is being develop that integrates the seven capitals under multiple scenarios of future climate change to improve the understanding of the complex nature of coupled human and aquatic systems and assist with decision making.

Water is a critical component of national concerns regarding climate change and energy. Given that freshwater systems will undoubtedly play a critical role in a looming water crisis, the lessons from the Great Lakes transboundary region, and particularly from a freshwater-rich state such as Michigan, can assist in understanding and addressing future water and health problems nationally and internationally. In addition, the large expense of re-investing in water and wastewater infrastructure to prevent pollution of water resources is a significant challenge. Coupling the intellectual, entrepreneurial, and organizational expertise of universities, businesses and government will facilitate the development of the best practices for water science, technology, and education such that problems become opportunities. This will improve understanding, protection and wise use of water resources leading to future healthy, economically vital communities. The "Learning from Adaptable Water Systems" project is integrating multiple aspects of the complex nature of society, realizing the importance of water to the quality of life.

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. A fascinating problem in biology is, how plants control the structure of their cell walls during growth on a molecular level. We propose to probe the cellulose structure in genetically modified plants, in plant parts such as stems or roots which grow significantly faster than in the wildtype. We obtained first results with wide-angle scattering/fiber diffraction on D-line in the last run, however, the data were limited by background levels and the limited detector area and resolution. At F1 we would like to use the helium environment developed for the protein microcrystallography effort, in combination with either a 100 micron collimator or a focusing capillary. Goal of this development study is to see, which features are essential to the success of this experiment where we would like to obtain as detailed data on the cellulose structure as possible (helium, prewetted helium at room temperature, dry helium for cryogenic temperature, detector range, signal-to-noise).

This Pan-American Advanced Studies Institutes (PASI) award, jointly supported by the NSF and the Department of Energy (DOE), will take place in July 1-10, 2013 at the School of Public Health at University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. The principal investigator, Dr. Joan Rose (Michigan State University) will be joined on the organizing committee by scientists from the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela. This PASI will engage 25 post-doctoral scientists, advanced graduate students and junior scientists and engineers from a diverse set of fields including environmental engineering, microbiology, environmental science, epidemiology, environmental health, veterinary medicine, and emergency preparedness. Participants will gain hands-on experience with mathematical software and statistical approaches for addressing water pollution and control. Additionally, the participants will attend lectures from top scientists in the field of quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA), engage in specific exercises, and become familiar with probabilistic methodology.

This PASI will build upon the World Health Organization's recent publication that recommended that QMRA be used to implement the water safety plans by engaging more scientists and engineers from across the globe to gain experience with QMRA. In addition, countries such as Brazil, Chile and Mexico are in a position to construct their water service systems implementing the new technologies that will be discussed and assessed in the institute. Global access to program materials will be created via a website and contributions to the QMRA wiki. Additionally, an environmental science and engineering career program will be developed to discuss post-doctoral scientists' pathways for engaging in water research, particularly in Central and South America.