Matters Microbial #84: Detecting Pathogens — and Worse — in Wastewater March 27, 2025

Today, Dr. Rachel Poretsky, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how examining wastewater (and related water) can give insights into the presence of pathogen antimicrobial resistance genes and even microbial ecology.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Rachel Poretsky

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Links for this episode

• A link to demonstrate the wonders of the Marine Biological Laboratories’ Microbial Diversity course, which I know for a fact is life changing.
• Recommended by David Ranada, an article about water bottles and microbes.  
• An essay about the Chicago River and cholera, which led to the necessity of effective waste water treatment.
• An overview of the complexities of waste water treatment.  Here is a video on that topic.  
• An essay by Carl Zimmer about the microbial ecology of lakes…and human beings.
• How “recreational water quality” is determined.
• An article describing the microbiota associated with human biological waste with an amusing name (scroll down).
• How qPCR can be used to determine the prevalence of specific microbes.
• A recent article from Dr. Poretsky’s research group, investigating how antimicrobial resistance genes can move through a hospital waste water system.
• A link to the Bacterial-Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center, for which Dr. Poretsky is a Principle Investigator.
• The Illinois state wastewater surveillance dashboard.  Fascinating!
• A Discovery Channel documentary on virus hunting and surveillance that includes Dr. Poretsky.
• Dr. Poretsky’s faculty webpage.
• Dr. Poretsky’s webpage for her research group.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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