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National & International Funded Research Projects.

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National & International Funded Research Projects

European Project

Healthy Water, home page.

Project Summary

The overall goal of the project is to advance our knowledge on pathogenesis of emergent microbial pathogens in drinking water and to understand their transmission to humans. The project will focus on all major types of pathogens, i.e. viruses, bacteria and protozoa, and will concentrate on a representative set of European drinking water supply systems and source waters of specific sensitivity to human health. This project will build on the output of the MicroRisk project by focussing on water systems that are in general not as well protected as the systems within MicroRisk. To reach the overall goal the following detailed objectives are approached: 1. Validation and application of detection technologies for emerging microbial pathogens based on nucleic acids. 2. Molecular survey and comparative detailed study of emerging pathogens in European drinking water sources and supply systems. 3. Understanding the human health impact of emerging pathogens by primary epidemiological studies targeted at specific systems and pathogens. 4. Determination of epidemiological correlations with molecular and environmental data and assessment of risk for waterborne microbial infections in Europe. An integrated research approach will be pursued to achieve these objectives by combining molecular and classical detection, activity assessment and epidemiological understanding of emerging pathogens in a specific set of drinking water systems from different European regions. The project will generate validated detection technologies for the targeted waterborne pathogens and reveal possible routes of transmission to humans via drinking water consumption. This new knowledge will provide guidance to improve the hygienic quality of European drinking water supplies and reduce the burden of waterborne infections for the people in Europe.

Project objectives

To meet the general aim given by the Commission we have defined the following specific objectives within the HEALTHY-WATER project:

Objective 1: Development and validation of molecular detection technologies for emerging microbial pathogens based on nucleic acids to provide a format ready for mass application in drinking water samples.

Objective 2: Molecular survey and comparative detailed study of emerging microbial pathogens in European drinking water sources and supply systems.

Objective 3: Understanding human health impacts of emerging pathogens in different drinking water  supply systems and different supply regimes.

Objective 4: Determination of epidemiological correlations with molecular and environmental data and assessment of risk for emerging   waterborne microbial infections in Europe.

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ANR Project

AQUAPARADOX, home page.
The Paradox of the Plankton (G. E. Hutchinson 1961. Amer Nat 95:137-145)

"...... how is it possible for a number of species to coexist in a relatively isotropic or unstructured environment all competing for the same sort of materials. The problem is particularly acute because there is adequate evidence from enrichment experiments that natural waters, at least in the summer, present an environment of striking nutrient deficiency, so that competition is likely to be extremely severe."

AQUAPARADOX Project Summary

Planktonic microbes constitute the base of aquatic ecosystems. Protists are typical of the plankton as species richness seems unreasonably high- the 'Paradox'. In addition, each species appears widely distributed. Recent molecular data suggest that protist species, defined morphologically, may be genetically diverse. Thus, many 'species' of planktonic protists actually may be groups of cryptic species (morphologically indistinguishable, genetically divergent) each adapted to precise ecological niches. Conversely, many species have been catalogued which might be simply variants of a single species. In this project, we will examine morphological, genetic and physiological diversity in common coastal protist morpho-species, that is morphologically-defined species. Subjects of study include a wide range of protists: 1) grazers of the sea- tintinnid ciliates, 2) autotrophs, that is 'plant' or phytoplankton forms- the dinoflagellate Ceratium and the small flagellate Micromonas, and 3) the parasite Syndiniales. Population structure of protist species will be studied at the level of single cells and between populations separated by different scales of time and space. Genetic diversity will be evaluated using SSU rRNA, ITS sequences and protein coding genes. Morphometrics will be used to characterise variability within a species and physiological adaptation using cultures. We will also examine patterns of community assembly and historical trends in species distributions. Our goal is to provide a basis for understanding protist adaptation, speciation and ecology in aquatic systems.
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Themes

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Phylogeny and biodiversity.

Microbial diversity: the new approach. (in french)

The importance of the microbial world (french).

Ho to build a molecular systematics of microbes : molecular phylogenies (french).

Phylogenies and DNA chips (french).

Using ontologies to asses microbial diversity and activities (english).

Bacterial identifications

Pyrosequencing it all

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Design of DNA chips.


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last updated 2008.