Pathogen Detection & Surveillance

Human and animal paathogens are a tremendous burden on our health and well-being. Environmental engineering and public health specialists therefore need to be able to detect pathogens in complex environmental samples and understand how they are inactivated in natural and engineered system. Our research group works to improve virus detection and monitoring methods. We also seek a mechanistic description of pathogen fate in the environment and in systems designed to mitigate their spread. We are particularly interested in how differences in pathogen genomes and pathogen particle structures influence their susceptibility to inactivation.