Understanding how viruses and biomolecules (e.g., nucleic acids and proteins) transform, persist, and partition in the natural and engineered systems is critical for ensuring safe water, food, and air. Our team employs a multidisciplinary approach, using microbiological, molecular, and chemical techniques to uncover the fundamental mechanisms driving these behaviors and translate our findings into real-world solutions.

A major thrust of our research is improving the accuracy of virus surveillance in wastewater. Although WBE is a powerful tool for tracking diseases like COVID-19, polio, and influenza, using wastewater concentrations to determine infection levels in a community requires a detailed understanding of virus stability. Our work has demonstrated that virus capsids protect nucleic acids from degradation.  We have also characterized the mechanisms by which viruses partition to wastewater solids. These insights provide the scientific foundation necessary to improve quantification methods and interpret virtual signals during public health emergencies.  

We also investigate viral and biomolecular transformations during water treatment processes such as chlorination, ultraviolet (UV) disinfection, coagulation, flocculation, and sedimentation. Although these processes are widely used, we lack mechanistic models capable of predicting viral persistence under different treatment and environmental conditions, as well as the persistence of new, emerging viruses. Using a range of human viruses and their surrogates, along with analytical and microbiological tools, we probe the chemical and physical reactions within the virus particle and its biomolecules that ultimately drive inactivation. For example, we’ve demonstrated the impact of higher-order virus particle structure on UV-induced reactions in viral genomes. We have also identified the reactions in enveloped viruses that drive inactivation during chlorination. In our current research, we are identifying the drivers of tailing during UV disinfection by exploring how nucleic acid sequences and genome types influence this effect.