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Model-aided Design and Integration of Functionalized Hybrid Nanomaterials for Enhanced Bioremediation of Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs)

Award Number: R01ES032717
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

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PROJECT SUMMARY Environmental contamination by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) is a major public health concern because of the wide range of toxic effects that have been associated with exposure to these persistent chemicals. Due to the strong stability of the C-F bond, very few microorganisms have been found capable of degrading PFASs, and the biodegradation is very slow and incomplete. Often, bioremediation efforts result in the formation of shorter chain PFASs that remain toxic, persistent, and highly mobile in the environment. Current abiotic treatment technologies can be more effective, but have very high energy requirements. Therefore, this research proposes an innovative remediation strategy that couples a pre-treatment step using catalytic hybrid nanomaterials with biodegradation using enriched microbial communities to achieve more efficient and complete destruction of PFASs without the formation of toxic by-products. Multifunctional reduced graphene oxide-metallic nanohybrids (e.g. rGO-nZVI-TiO2) that are capable of catalyzing defluorination and oxidation of PFASs will be synthesized and characterized for their efficiencies in converting highly stable PFASs to more biodegradable forms. Pure cultures (e.g. Dehalococcoides sp. and Dehalobacter sp.) and enriched microbial consortia collected from PFAS-contaminated sites and anaerobic wastewater treatment plants will be used to degrade different types of PFASs and measure their removal efficacy. Using metagenomic and transcriptomic tools, the microorganisms responsible for degradation, their functional characteristics, and the genes being transcribed during defluorination will be identified. By-products formed at each step of the pre-treatment reaction, and during the course of the microbial degradation of PFASs will be characterized using liquid chromatography with high- resolution mass spectrometry, 19F-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and ion chromatography to obtain information on the identities of PFASs transformation products, degradation kinetics, and mass balance. Molecular modeling will be used to bring mechanistic insight into specific PFAS-surface and PFAS-enzyme interactions. The effect of the structural features of PFASs (i.e. branching, chain-length, type of head groups) on their biodegradability will be systematically evaluated, first by molecular modeling, and then by experimental validation. Knowledge from the chemical characterization of PFASs degradation by-products combined with in silico site-directed mutagenesis will facilitate the tuning of enzymatic activities and discovery of novel bacteria that are efficient degraders of PFASs from the natural environment. These insights will guide the systematic design of highly efficient nano-enhanced bioremediation systems for complete microbial degradation of PFASs.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $322,482 )
2024	2024	RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, THE	520 LEE ENTRANCE STE 211	AMHERST	NY	14228	ERIE	USA	NIEHS Superfund Hazardous Substances_Basic Research and Education	000	4	10/27/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$300,208
2024	2024	RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, THE	520 LEE ENTRANCE STE 211	AMHERST	NY	14228	ERIE	USA	NIEHS Superfund Hazardous Substances_Basic Research and Education	001	4	10/30/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$22,274
														Subtotal = $322,482

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $349,749 )
2023	2023	RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, THE	520 LEE ENTRANCE STE 211	AMHERST	NY	14228	ERIE	USA	NIEHS Superfund Hazardous Substances_Basic Research and Education	000	3	10/31/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$300,419
2023	2023	RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, THE	520 LEE ENTRANCE STE 211	AMHERST	NY	14228	ERIE	USA	NIEHS Superfund Hazardous Substances_Basic Research and Education	002	3	2/27/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
2023	2023	RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, THE	520 LEE ENTRANCE STE 211	AMHERST	NY	14228	ERIE	USA	NIEHS Superfund Hazardous Substances_Basic Research and Education	001	3	11/1/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$49,330
														Subtotal = $349,749

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $353,402 )
2022	2022	RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, THE	520 LEE ENTRANCE STE 211	AMHERST	NY	14228	ERIE	USA	NIEHS Superfund Hazardous Substances_Basic Research and Education	001	2	8/2/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$15,998
2022	2022	RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, THE	520 LEE ENTRANCE STE 211	AMHERST	NY	14228	ERIE	USA	NIEHS Superfund Hazardous Substances_Basic Research and Education	003	2	8/9/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$0
2022	2022	RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, THE	520 LEE ENTRANCE STE 211	AMHERST	NY	14228	ERIE	USA	NIEHS Superfund Hazardous Substances_Basic Research and Education	000	2	10/27/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$309,895
2022	2022	RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, THE	520 LEE ENTRANCE STE 211	AMHERST	NY	14228	ERIE	USA	NIEHS Superfund Hazardous Substances_Basic Research and Education	002	2	8/8/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$27,509
														Subtotal = $353,402

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $285,929 )
2021	2021	RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, THE	520 LEE ENTRANCE STE 211	AMHERST	NY	14228	ERIE	USA	NIEHS Superfund Hazardous Substances_Basic Research and Education	000	1	12/15/2020	NEW	$285,929
														Subtotal = $285,929

Grand Total All Awards = $1,311,562

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Model-aided Design and Integration of Functionalized Hybrid Nanomaterials for Enhanced Bioremediation of Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs)

Award Number: R01ES032717

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

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