? PROJECT 1: JI, Kiana Frank Despite large advances in water and wastewater treatment, waterborne diseases still pose a major worldwide threat to public health. However, most waterborne pathogens are unmonitored, and their adverse effect on human health and productivity can only be controlled by obtaining a thorough understanding of their incidence, environmental niches, and the epidemiology of the diseases they cause. The goal of this proposal is to evaluate how land-use patterns and environmental factors influence the diversity, abundance, virulence and persistence of waterborne microbial threats in Hawaiian watersheds - as a model to improve our understanding of the global pathogen diversity and of the environmental forces shaping it. The overarching hypothesis is that factors associated with urbanization contribute to increased pathogen abundance, diversity and distribution. By integrating field sampling, experimental approaches, geochemistry and genomics this proposal will (i) characterize the biogeography of aquatic pathogens in three Hawaiian watersheds; (ii) define the bases of the observed patterns of pathogen diversity and density; and (iii) test the influence of physical and chemical variables on pathogen dynamics. This work will enable biogeographic modeling of these dynamics to predict threats across geochemical and anthropogenic gradients, aid in the development of more efficient, accurate and reliable molecular screening tools, and foster a more informed public on the presence and risks of pathogens in their environment. It is also highly relevant to broad goals currently driving epidemiology and environmental microbiology. This project will take full advantage of the proposed Microbial Genomics and Analytical (M-GAL) Core, as well as the Microscopy Imaging Center for Research through Observation (MICRO) and the University of Hawaii's Cyberinfrastructure Core. The impact of this research is synergistic with that of COBRE Projects 2-5, serving as a foundation to understand microbial interactions with the physico- chemical environment - from free-living to symbiotic organisms - and their influence on human health. !
