Harnessing insect microbes for bioremediation and environmental engineering

From Left: Jack, Miriam, Camille and Eduardo in September 2024. Camille and Eduardo helped Miriam and Jack kick of their microbiology graduate group rotation. Miriam focused on enzymatic transformation of mycotoxins by microbial consortia from black soldier fly larvae, while Jack focused on PFAS bioaccumulation by the larvae when exposed to landfill leachate.

One thing I love about Fall quarter is the launch of projects (professional and personal) and welcoming new students to UC Davis.  This year I was pleased to welcome two new PhD students in the Microbiology Graduate Group (MGG) for a Fall quarter rotation!

Over 5 weeks, Miriam Lepiz and Jack Bartlett worked with postdoctoral researchers, Dr. Camille Wolfe and Dr. Wenting Li, and environmental engineering MS student Eduardo Baptista De Siqueira. The team has been working on our group’s NSF CAREER project to harness microbes in the guts of Black Soldier Fly Larvae to sequester and degrade contaminants.

The incoming MGG students will rotate in four research groups as part of their initial training and finding the right fit for a PhD project.

 

Miriam Lepiz cultured microbes that are known to degrade mycotoxins: “With a background in microbial ecology and evolution, I am interested in studying and taking advantage of microbial evolution to combat environmental issues impacting human and animal health.  Previously at UC Irvine I studied the complex interactions found within synthetic leaf litter microbial communities to understand how these communities impact biogeochemical cycling and ultimately be used to understand the role environmental microbes have on climate change.”
Jack Bartlett took a turn at rearing (and counting) Black Soldier Fly Larvae for a bioaccumulation experiment using landfill leachate: “Before moving to UC Davis to pursue my Ph.D., I worked at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the Wolfgang Busch lab where I researched genes associated with suberination in roots of A. thaliana. I am interested in bioremediation, climate change effect mitigation, and sustainability measures.”
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Curious kids and insects crawling on campus: Insect-based bioprocessing and Vermicomposting at 2024 UC Davis Picnic Day

Eduardo (center) prepared an exhibition on insect-based bioprocessing of organic waste for Picnic Day – complete with demonstrations of Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) and giveaways of red wrigglers for home vermicomposting. Jordan (left) and Winston (right) helped out with the popular stand!

This year’s UC Davis annual Picnic Day on April 20, 2024 was crawling with curious kids, and insect larvae! Civil & Environmental Engineering Masters Student, Eduardo Siqueira, hosted a stand at the event, and spoke with hundreds of children and parents through the day.

Eduardo highlighted research underway as part of our National Science Foundation CAREER project. Our team is investigating how Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) can accelerate composting processes and generate valuable products from organic waste. We are studying how microorganisms and enzymes in the insect gut degrade contaminants.

Eduardo was impressed with engagement from kids and parents alike. Many found the BSFL quite amazing and were excited to take some red wrigglers for home composting. “I had brought enough supplies for about 100 ‘giveaways’, but before 1PM it was all gone.”  Next time we’ll prepare double!

Many of the kids wanted to see and touch some of the earthworms, and with parents permission, Eduardo would have the kids see and feel the earthworms.

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Wrightwood gets woodchip treatment right.

Abstract Image

I’m happy to share Olivia Wrightwood’s manuscript, which was recently published in Environmental Science & Technology – Water! Woodchip bioreactors are designed for nitrate removal from agricultural runoff. Olivia’s work evaluated the potential for pesticide removal in lab and field-scale woodchip reactors and aims more broadly to inform best management practices (BMPs) for in-field pesticide treatment. She used a combination of engineering strategies (designing and programming bioreactor controls), field skills (testing environmental conditions in an agricultural setting), and the scientific process (controlled kinetic batch studies) to investigate pesticide removal mechanisms and to ideate design strategies to improve pesticide removal. She found that removal of imidacloprid and diuron are driven by sorption to the woodchips, with a slight signature of microbial activity. She is now building on this work to promote microbial degradation of pesticides in field reactors by stimulating enzyme activity and enzymatic transformation of pesticides.

Olivia Wrightwood sampling in the woodchip bioreactor channels she studied for this project.
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Catching up with our public-facing COVID-19 wastewater research

You might say that quite a few things have happened since I last posted here nearly two years ago… these are tulmutuous times and COVID-19 has impacted each of us. As a mother of two joyful and energetic young kids, I felt the challenges of the work-life collision that occurred when the pandemic flipped our old normal upside-down in March 2020 (my kids were 2 and 4 years old at the time). Our resilient little people have grown together as siblings and weathered zoom-land like the best of ’em. As an Assistant Professor with a team conducting experimental research in the lab, I experienced the impacts of the  shutdown and the subsequent stages of safety overhalls on our group’s progress. My incredible research team has persisted through these setbacks and continue to be an amazing source of intellectual curiousity and inspiration.

The pandemic also opened up new avenues of collaboration and research for my team. In Summer 2020, we began a project to monitor SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater at UC Davis and subsequently with the City of Davis through the Healthy Davis Together initiative. Our work enables data-driven decision-making using wastewater infrastructure at city, neighborhood, and building scales. We use wastewater as a warning systeem and use geo-targeted community messaging systems to provide rapid and targeted information on COVID-19 trends from wastewater to the public. As a scientist and engineer focused on environmental health challenges (with an emphasis on viruses!), I am proud to be contributing to ongoing efforts to curb this virus and its impacts in our community.

Our wastewater monitoring project includes providing weekly updates to a public website to share results for wastewater monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 (https://healthydavistogether.org/wastewater-testing/), and I’ve spoken at various public and scientific forums like the UC Davis COVID Symposium (1/13/21).

We also developed a step-by-step guidance document for implementing wastewater monitoring in cities (available at: https://healthydavistogether.org/monitoring-wastewater-response/).

I’ve had a stint of interviews with local and national news sources, and our work in wastewater based epidemiology was highlighted in various media outlets. Some spotlights and quotes can be found in:

 

 

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