The AWARE Team
Prof. Dr. Ana Maria de Roda Husman has over 20 years of experience as a principal investigator in environmental infectious diseases. She advises policy makers at the Dutch government, the European committee, and a.o. WHO, ECDC, and EFSA on the possible public health risks from exposure to human pathogens in water, soil and air, and possible intervention measures. She has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals, and several book chapters, reviews and reports. She directs infectious disease research and policy advice at the dept. of Environment at the Dutch Center of Infectious Disease Control of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. She holds the chair of Global changes and environmentally transmitted infectious diseases at the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences of Utrecht University e.g. educating on average 6-7 PhD students. She has served as an expert for WHO since 2004 for the revision of the Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality, and is director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Risk Assessment of Pathogens in Food and Water. She was appointed in the Dutch Soil Protection Technical Committee since 2013. She has coordinated several European networks and (sub)projects (FP5-7, H2020, COST) with respect to environmental infectious diseases e.g. VSS, Virobathe, Vital, BlueHealth.
Experience in the topic of the project
Ana Maria de Roda Husman has been involved in estimating health risks from exposure to AMR in the environment for over ten years and aided the WHO Global Action Plan on AMR in relation to WaSH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene). She contributed to setting AMR research agendas with a.o. WHO and at the national level.
Prof. Dr. Carmen Chifiriuc is the Principal investigator of six national projects and team member of 33 research grants (4 international – FP7, ERANET, PHARE). She is the main author/co-author of 14 books (including “Antibiotics and Antimicrobial chimiotherapeutics” – Romanian Academy Publish. House), >200 papers (Hirsh index 19). She is also the coordinator or member in the scientific and organizing committee of eight international workshops and conferences, has been invited as plenary speaker in six international conferences and workshops; she is a member in the Editorial Board of 5 Romanian journals, indexed in international databases; Guest editor for special issues in Current Organic Chemistry; Current Medicinal Chemistry ; Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry) and evaluator of national and international research proposals.
Experience in the topic of the project
Phenotypic and genotypic investigation of antibiotic resistance (AR) and virulence markers in clinical and environmental strains. Assessment of the microbicidal/microbiostatic/anti-pathogenic activity of new chemical compounds, probiotics, vegetal extracts, nanocomposites. UB included in the team a WWTP technology expert. Dr. Costel Bumbac is a Biotechnology Engineer with experience in environmental biotechnologies, development of innovative processes of water treatment, drinking water and soil bioremediation. He was involved in 42 research projects and has 5 patents in these fields. During the present project he will offer consultancy regarding the most appropriate selection of WWTPs in order to assess the efficiency of different WWTP treatment technologies in the removal/decrease of ARB.
Prof. Dr. Joakim Larsson is a professor of environmental pharmacology, and the Director of the Centre for Antibiotic Research (CARe) funded by UGOT. He has published 107 peer review publications and book chapters. According to google scholar, these have been cited 5316 times (Hirsch Index 37) Out of his 20 most cited papers, he is first or last author on 17, demonstrating a leading role. Professor Larsson is a laureate of the Swedish Young Fernström prize, and he is the principal investigator for numerous grants related to the current topic, including “NoCURE“ on Novel Carbapenemases – unravelling the environmental resistome; a regional ALF-funding on ’Resistance surveillance via analyses of hospital effluent’; INTERACT, on ’The interaction of metals and biocides with the selection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria’; and a FORMAS/SCR project on ’The role of antibiotics in the environment for the emergence, selection and transfer of antibiotic resistance’. Over the past 10 years, he has been principal investigator for projects funded with more than 12.5 million € and co-applicant for projects funded with an additional 23 million €, providing ample experience in project management. He has supervised 10 PhD students to dissertation (+4 ongoing) and has been main mentor for 18 postdocs and researchers. His current research group is comprised of 15 people with 3 additional recruitments ongoing. The center he leads (CARe) includes more than 80 researchers. He frequently serves as reviewer for both Swedish and international funding bodies, including FORMAS, and he serves on the editorial board for several journals and on the Swedish advisory board for JPI- AMR. He dedicates much time to interactions with stakeholders in the water and health sector. As examples of dissemination of research results to and education of the general public, he has contributed to about 10 documentary films, been on national TV/radio 16 times the past few years, given a TEDx-talk and helped journalists write several hundred articles about his research.
Prof. Dr. Katja Radon is an occupational and environmental epidemiologist with almost 20 years of experience in the field. She is director of the Center for International Health @ LMU (www.cih.lmu.de), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. She has coordinated several EU studies (European farmers project (BMH1- CT94 – 1554); NetWoRM project (135281-LLP-1-2007-1-DE-KA4MP) and is/has been involved as a national partner in a number of EU projects (e.g., Geronimo, MobiKids, GA2LEN). Nationally, she is currently coordinating studies funded by federal ministries, ministries of federal states, foundations, and enterprises. She has (co-)authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications.
Experience in the topic of the project
Katja Radon has been involved in and coordinated a large number of occupational and environmental epidemiological projects, e.g. a study on the effects of concentrated animal feeding operations on respiratory health and prevalence of MRSA in neighboring residents, and the European Farmers study.
The research focus of Dr. Heike Schmitt lies in the field of antibiotic resistance in the environment, in which she has more than 10 years’ experience. After a position of assistant professor at the University of Utrecht, she is now principal investigator on AMR in the environment at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). In addition, she acts as research advisor at the WETSUS technology institute. Her main focus lies in the field of the transmission of resistant bacteria with surface water and manure, and in human exposure and carriage of exposed populations. Her work within the WHO Collaborating Center of Risk Assessment of Pathogens in Food and Water includes international surveillance campaigns of antibiotic resistance. She frequently participates in international and national research projects, such as the FP7 EFFORT project and other FP6 projects, and she coordinates projects for the German Environmental Protection Agency and for Dutch Ministries.
Dr. Hetty Blaak works at the Centre of Zoonoses and Environmental Microbiology for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). For the past eight years her research focussed on antibiotic resistant bacteria in the outside environment, in particular the aquatic environment. She has coordinated multiple research projects covering two common themes: the identification of fecal sources of antibiotic resistant bacteria in Dutch surface water, and the public health risks associated with the presence of these bacteria in surface water. Her most recent research projects involved the enumeration, isolation, and characterization of CPE in municipal and hospital wastewater. Current studies include a study aimed to determine the risk of exposure to ESBL-producing E. coli for people swimming in surface water.
Dr. Luminiţa Măruţescu, Associated Professor at the Microbiology Department, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest and researcher at Research Institute of University of Bucharest. The main research directions approached in the research projects are: characterization of resistance markers in Gram negative bacteria from waste waters and receiving rivers, assessment of antimicrobial activity of novel antimicrobial compounds and investigation of antibiotic resistance mechanisms by phenotypic and genotypic tools. Expertise domains: microbiology, flow cytometry in microbiology, antimicrobial activity, and antibiotic resistance markers.
Associate Professor Carl-Fredrik Flach has a background as molecular biologist and holds a PhD in medical microbiology. During the last years his research has focused on the role of sewage in emergence, selection, transmission and surveillance of antibiotic resistance, which now also includes the AWARE project.
Dr. Laura Wengenroth is a sociologist and epidemiologist and holds a PhD in biomedical sciences. As a postdoc she is currently involved in recruitment of study participants, study design and questionnaire design of the AWARE study. Besides the AWARE study, she is involved in the management and data analysis of a cross-sectional study about the spreading of mouse allergens by laboratory animal workers from workplace to home environment (MOUSE study).
Daloha Rodriguez-Molina is a young Venezuelan medical doctor and epidemiologist currently pursuing a PhD in Germany. As part of the AWARE team, she is involved in study design, recruitment of study participants, and questionnaire design. Daloha is also the webmaster for the AWARE webpage. Her main interests are causality, study design, data analysis, machine learning, science communication, scientific writing, and e-learning. She has worked on several projects in Prof. Dr. Katja Radon's team, namely SOLAR, ACROSSOLAR, txt2Paul, the International Master Occupational Safey and Health, and now AWARE.