Overview: As illustrated in this brief video, our team is developing bio-inspired technology to separate and eliminate microplastics from the treated effluent of wastewater treatment plants. Our approach will employ the unmatched capacity of aquatic bivalves to efficiently separate and concentrate microplastics from water. Then, by co-concentrating these microplastics with microplastics-degrading bacteria, we hope to efficiently and sustainably biodegrade the microplastics. This project will not only develop new bio-inspired technology, it will also work to understand the factors that drive or impede adoption of new wastewater treatment technology to actually see this new technology be implemented.
Funding: This project is funded by a new NSF EFRI 3EP grant (NSF Award # 2029428).
Collaborators: This research is being done in partnership with nine other principal investigators. Please visit our Project Website to learn more.
Overview: The function of soil systems results from soil organisms interacting with and within a complex microenvironment. Experimental soil systems typically must choose between reproducible, tractable, simplicity and realism. Our lab pioneered optically transparent, spatially complex, fully reproducible emulated soil micromodels that emulate key physiochemical features of real soil at the appropriate spatial scale to better understand the function of natural soil systems.
Funding: This work has been supported by DOE Biological and Environmental Research (DOE Contract # SC0014522), USDA Program in Renewable Energy, Natural Resources, and Environment: Processes and Transformation in Soil, Water, and Air (USDA NIFA-AFRI Grant # 2012-67020-1938), and the University of Connecticut.
Collaborators: This work is a collaboration with Jessica Furrer and Dan Gage
Key Publications:
Primary Reports of the Development & Validation of Emulated Soil Micromodel
Guo, YS, JM Furrer, AL Kadilak, HF Hinestroza, DJ Gage, YK Cho, LM Shor LM. 2018. “Bacterial Extracellular Polymeric Substances Amplify Water Content Variability at the Pore Scale.” Frontiers in Environmental Science. 6:93. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2018.00093
Cruz, BC, JM Furrer, YS Guo, D Dougherty, HF Hinestroza, JS Hernandez, DJ Gage, YK Cho, LM Shor. 2017. “Pore-scale water dynamics during drying and the impacts of structure and surface wettability.” Water Resources Research. 53(7), 5585-5600. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR019862
Deng, J, EP Orner, JF Chau, EM Anderson, AL Kadilak, RL Rubinstein, GM Bouchillon, R Goodwin, DJ Gage, LM Shor. 2015. Synergistic effects of soil microstructure and bacterial EPS on drying rate in emulated soil micromodels. Soil Biology & Biochemistry. 83(4), 116–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2014.12.006
Recent Co-authored Reports of Applications of Emulated Soil Micromodel
JK Lukowski, A Bhattacharjee, SM Yannarell, K Schwarz, LM. Shor, EA. Shank, CR Anderton. 2021. “Expanding the molecular coverage in mass spectrometry imaging of microbial systems using metal-assisted laser desorption/ionization.” Microbiology Spectrum. In Press. https://doi.org/10.1128/Spectrum.00520-21
A Bhattacharjee, AM Thompson, KC Schwarz, MC Burnet, Y-M Kim, JR Nunez, SJ Fansler, Y Farris, CJ Brislawn, TO Metz, RS McClure, RS Renslow, LM Shor, JK Jansson, KS Hofmockel, CR Anderton. 2020. “Soil microbial EPS resiliency is influenced by carbon source accessibility.” Soil Biology & Biochemistry. 151, 108037. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2020.108037
Soufan, R, Y Delaunay, L Vieublé, LM Shor, P Garnier, W Otten, PC Baveye. 2018. “Pore-scale monitoring of the effect of microarchitecture on fungal growth in a two-dimensional soil-like micromodel.” Frontiers in Environmental Science. 6:68. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2018.00068
Please visit Publications to learn more.
Overview: The rhizosphere is the region of soil immediately surrounding plant roots. This wonderfully complex microbial habitat is comprised of soil, water films, and air pockets with steep chemical gradients and is teeming with life. Soil are an important but sometimes overlooked member of the rhizosphere system. We have shown that protists actively redistribute bacteria or bacteria-sized particles along plant roots. This technology may even be used for targeted delivery and controlled release of a wide range of encapsulated agrochemicals.
Funding: This project is funded by a current NSF SusCHEM grant (NSF Award # 1605624). including an INTERN supplement with Corteva Agriscience, as well as prior awards including a global development award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and a USDA award.
Collaborators: This work is a collaboration with Dan Gage and Bob Prud’homme.
Key Publications:
CJ Hawxhurst, J Micciulla, CM Bridges, LM Shor, DJ Gage. “Soil protists can actively redistribute beneficial bacteria along Medicago truncatula roots.” 2021. In Review. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.16.448774
Gage, DJ, LM Shor, JL Gage, JL Micciulla, RL Rubinstein. “Microbial Carriers for Targeted Delivery of Agricultural Payloads.” US Patent No. 9,603,368 issued March 28, 2017. https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2014043604A1/ja
Rubinstein, RL, AL Kadilak, VC Cousens, DJ Gage, LM Shor. 2015. Protist-facilitated particle transport using emulated soil micromodels. Environmental Science & Technology. 49(3), 1384–1391. https://doi.org/10.1021/es503424z
Please visit Publications to learn more.