Project description
Understanding wastewater as a reservoir for antibiotic resistance
City sewers harbour complex microbial communities containing diverse antibiotic-resistant bacteria coming from human excreta. The MSCA-funded DEAR-Waste project seeks to understand the dynamics of antibiotic-resistant bacterial populations in city sewers by creating wastewater model systems (microcosms) that emulate the complexity of the sewage environment. Using interdisciplinary knowledge and analytical tools such as high-throughput sequencing and statistical modeling, it will emulate species performance under different chemical conditions and species interactions. These lab models will be compared with real-world measurements from city sewers. Coupled with the results of an evolutionary experiment using similar microcosms, the DEAR-Waste project will determine the effect of environmental complexity and interspecies interactions on the evolution of antibiotic resistance in urban wastewater.
Objective
Environmental antibiotic resistance is a major threat to human and veterinary health and a key issue addressed by the European One Health Action Plan Against Antimicrobial Resistance. City sewers shelter rich and diverse bacterial communities that are continuously exposed to antibiotic residues from human excreta, thus becoming a reservoir of resistance. Predicting the risk of antibiotic resistance evolution in city sewers requires a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics and evolution of wastewater bacterial communities faced to such exposition. However, sewers are complex environments and contain multiple abiotic factors, which may act in non-additive ways. In addition, interactions between species within communities affect growth and consequently competition, through both density- and frequency-dependent processes. By changing the competitive ability of variants, such as antibiotic resistant phenotypes, interspecies interactions also change evolutionary processes.
DEAR-Waste aims at understanding the dynamics of communities and antibiotic resistance evolution in city sewers, together with establishing wastewater as a model system for fundamental studies on community dynamics and evolution. DEAR-Waste adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining high-throughput sequencing technologies, environmental chemistry, microbial ecology and evolution, time-series statistical analysis, and formal modelling. Data from synthetic mesocosms will parametrize the Hutchinsonian niche for population in communities: a tolerance curve mapping species performance onto a complex environmental space defined by the multidimensional abiotic environment and species interactions. Predictions from these curves will be tested against field measurements of microbial and chemical dynamics sampled in city sewers. An evolutionary experiment in similar mesocosms will finally quantify how environmental complexity and interspecies interactions modulate the evolution of antibiotic resistance.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering water treatment processes wastewater treatment processes
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- natural sciences biological sciences evolutionary biology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy drug resistance antibiotic resistance
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
17003 Girona
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.