Project Grant R43ES030669

This $157,667 Project Grant award from the Environmental Protection Agency's Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Research Program aims to develop a predictive reaction network using experimental and computational data to describe the environmental lifecycle of persistent biological transformation products of chemicals. The activities will integrate new methodologies and leverage Carnegie Mellon University's computational capabilities to select critical and stable biological transformation products...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $228,753 to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to conduct collaborative research on the identification and characterization of petrogenic compounds that persist in aquatic environments following crude oil and petroleum spills. The key objectives of this 3-year project are to: i) determine the chemical variability of oxygen-containing organic compounds (OCOCs) formed from different...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $288,291 to Michigan State University (MSU) to develop methods for quantifying genes encoding contaminant-degrading enzymes in groundwater, sediment, and soil samples using freely available DNA sequencing data. The goal is to better predict bioremediation timelines for contaminated sites by correlating contaminant removal rates with the abundance of these key functional genes. The...

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) awarded Chemfinity Technologies, Inc., a minority-owned small disadvantaged business in Brooklyn, NY, a $138,738 project grant under the NIEHS Superfund Hazardous Substances Basic Research and Education program (CFDA 93.143). The goal of the project is to develop and demonstrate the feasibility of Chemfinity's patented membrane-based ion-capture electrodialysis (IC-ED) technology for the remediation of acid mine drainage (AMD)...

This Project Grant award, with a total funding amount of $620,000.00, was provided by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) under the Assistance to State Water Resources Research Institutes program (CFDA 15.805). The purpose of the project is to investigate how daily environmental fluctuations, or "diel cycling", impact the fate of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) precursors in a unique, diatom-dominated constructed wetland. The interdisciplinary research approach combines field...

This three-year, $335,860 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems aims to develop strategies to enhance bioremediation of toxic chemical soil contamination. Specifically, the principal investigator at the State University of New York at Buffalo will investigate using chemical gradients to accelerate the transport of bacteria through soil matrices toward contamination sites. The research will experimentally...

This Project Grant award from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) under the Assistance to State Water Resources Research Institutes program (CFDA 15.805) will provide $512,496 to Purdue University over 2.5 years to develop and validate a robust laboratory method for quantifying per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in complex environmental matrices. The key focus is on evaluating a hydrogen peroxide oxidative pretreatment approach to improve extraction and analysis of understudied PFAS...

This $499,988 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) seeks to develop and validate an integrated sorption-photocatalytic process for the ex-situ treatment and remediation of groundwater contaminated by mixtures of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and chlorinated solvents like trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE). The principal investigator and research team at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded New York University $400,000 under the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Research Program for a three-year project grant concluding in August 2025. The goal of the research is to develop and validate novel passive sampling designs that can measure a diverse suite of air toxics and contaminants of emerging concern in ambient urban air at low detection limits. Activities include refining polyethylene films for passive air sampling of hazardous...

This $933,796 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation, under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), funds the development of paper-based biosensor test strips to detect soil contaminants such as arsenic and PFAS. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will engage citizen scientists and use bacteria as sensors to produce quantitative readings of contaminant concentrations in soil. Two types of bacteria - E. coli functioning as the...