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ag亚游集团App下载 graduate student in biology Angelica Cave recently landed a grant from the NMSU’s Water Resource 研究 Institute to support her study of antibiotic-resistant 污水处理中的细菌.

Her proposal is titled “Antibiotic resistance in wastewater treatment: the effects of different treatment methods on the differential survival of antibiotic resistant pathogens over non-resistant bacteria through the treatment process of two different 污水处理厂.”

凯夫博士和她的导师. Linda DeVeaux, will collect and examine samples taken from in-coming sewage, the aerobic digester, and the treated wastewater, as well as from the channel the waste water is discharged into both upstream and downstream from 索科罗污水处理厂. Collaborators in South Dakota will be conducting 类似的研究. Both areas have similar “interference” from agriculture and livestock.

“I hope to find out if bacteria carrying antibiotic resistance genes have a better chance of surviving the treatment processes used in the two 污水处理厂,” 她说. “We’ll be looking primarily at two panels of genes – 7 pathogenicity genes and 10个基因表明
对-内酰胺类抗生素的耐药性.”

Cave is taking samples from untreated wastewater, the aerobic digester, where the organic material gets broken down and is the most biologically significant step in the treatment process at the Socorro plant, the treated wastewater, and the channel the wastewater is discharged into, both upstream and downstream from the plant, as 处理后的废水正在排放.

她 will analyze those various samples to determine the presence of antibiotic resistant 基因(ARGs)和毒力基因(VGs). 携带细菌的相对比例 ARGs over those that don’t will be determined to show whether the presence of ARGs provides increased survivability to bacteria going through the current wastewater 两个污水处理厂的处理方法. 凯夫会多次取样 in the next year over the course of months to allow for the effects of temporal changes to be seen, which will allow insight in到 potential dynamics of ARBs in the environment.

Once samples are collected, Cave will conduct two studies: first, she will extract genomic DNA from the original environmental samples using the Qiagen PowerWater or PowerFecal extraction kits, and testing those extractions for the VGs and ARGs, and second, she will culture Gram- negative bacilli using MacConkey Agar from samples that showed the genes of interest, to isolate the bacteria which contain those genes. Additionally, she will test isolates of interest to determine if that isolate is resistant 到多种抗生素.

Cave said this project will provide new information about the possible connections 之间的
antibiotic resistant genes and antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment and 污水处理规范. 她说 this is so important because a link 之间的 the spread of ARB and ARGs and 污水处理厂 has long been suspected and, although it hasn’t been confirmed definitively, there are studies that support this theory and more 研究 is greatly needed. 抗生素耐药性感染是 becoming an increasing threat to public health and safety, which makes this sort of 研究及时且重要.

Cave said this project has the potential to benefit the Socorro 社区 by providing insight in到 presence of antibiotic resistance in the local surface water, which may lead to better antibiotic stewardship practices in the local clinics. 她说 this sort of 社区 project can raise awareness of our local 社区 and foster further relationships 之间的 NMT and the Socorro 社区.

“Without this grant, it’d be difficult for our lab to afford everything we need for 这个项目，”她说. “I’m really excited to have the opportunity to present this 研究 at the WRRI 研究 conference in October.”

An Albuquerque native, Cave started her college career at Central New Mexico Community 大学. There, she took prerequisite courses for the Diagnostic Medical Sonography program offered at CNM, which exposed her to math and science for the first time.

“I fell in love with biology and chemistry,” 她说. “我决定去ag亚游集团App下载 because it had a very similar feel to CNM with the smaller class sizes and sense of 社区.”

她 earned her bachelor’s in biology at NMT and decided to stay for a master’s. 她 is interested in pursuing a career in public health and the microbiology of how antibiotic 阻力在环境中移动.

“这是一个很大的未知数，”她说. “We don’t know how wastewater treatment factors in 到
spread of ARGs in the environment, and I’d like to pursue that question further.”