Freshwater mussels as biosensors for environmental pathogens

In an era where emerging zoonotic diseases pose a constant threat to biodiversity and public health, there is an urgent need for innovative and robust pathogen surveillance systems. Freshwater mussels, often overlooked in the realm of disease surveillance, may hold the key to revolutionizing our understanding of pathogen dynamics and providing early warning signs of potential outbreaks. By filtering water to acquire nutrients, freshwater mussels uptake pathogens present in the environment that may threaten public health if undetected. We propose to test cutting edge genomics technologies to detect such pathogens present in freshwater mussels. In this way, we aim to use the natural filtration ability of freshwater mussels as a more efficient and effective way to detect pathogens in the environment than currently available time-consuming and expensive methods such as mass screening of wild animals across the environment or manual filtration of copious volumes of water.

Faculty Supervisor:

Andrew Tanentzap

Student:

Partner:

University of Cambridge

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

Trent University

Program: