– Processing of environmental samples (effluents, soils, plants).
– DNA and RNA extraction from environmental microbial communities (virus and bacteria)
– Qualitative and quantitative analysis of viral pollutants of fecal origin (RT-qPCR, culture)
– Evaluation of viral infectivity
– Quantitative analysis of mobile genetic elements carrying antimicrobial resistance (qPCR)
– Characterization of the effect of agricultural treatment and irrigation processes on viral survival (physical persistence, infectivity), and the persistence of mobile genetic elements
– Development / construction of bacterial biosensors of salt stress
– Use of a panel of bacterial biosensors reporting different stresses (salts, surface stress, genotoxic stress, etc.) to characterize the physicochemical evolution of agricultural soil irrigated with effluents.
The successful candidate will take part in the European project DSWAP aiming at developing an urban wastewater treatment system compatible with the agricultural reuse of treated effluents, while guaranteeing public health, environmental health, and soil quality for sustainable agriculture. The recruited person will join the LCPME “Environmental Microbiology” team to analyze (1) the persistence of fecally transmitted viral pathogens and/or viral indicators, (2) the persistence of mobile genetic elements vector of antimicrobial resistance, in effluents and treated soils, and finally (3) to study the quality of the treated soil using bacterial stress-sensitive biosensors. This work will be carried out in collaboration with other microbiologists of the consortium focused on the persistence of pathogenic bacteria and antimicrobial resistance genes, but also with environmental chemists (emerging pollutants), researchers in process engineering (treatment processes), and agronomists (performance of treatments in the context of water reuse).
The successful candidate will join the LCPME (UMR 7564 UL-CNRS), which gather 78 people distributed in three teams. The recruited person will join the Environmental Microbiology team on the research topic “dissemination of antimicrobial resistance in the environment”, under the direction of Christophe Merlin and Xavier Bellanger. The project to which the recruited person will be associated to will take place in the context of an international collaboration bringing together 10 partners collectively aiming to provide concrete solutions in terms of advanced treatments for the safe wastewater reuse in agricultural purposes.
