Pushing the frontiers of water quality management through the development of bacteriophage-based pollution diagnostic tools

This interdisciplinary project aims to develop a ground-breaking precision tool that identifies human faecal pollution in water, using DNA sequencing and bacteriophage (viruses that infect bacteria) as diagnostic indicators.

This innovative approach addresses critical shortcomings of current culture-based methods by offering a rapid, accurate and sensitive tool that can identify human faecal pollution. The development of this technology is timely, given the increasing pressures on UK freshwater quality and the urgent need for better water quality monitoring and pollution control.

Freshwater ecosystems in the UK are under significant strain, with only 16% of English rivers achieving “good ecological status,” and none meeting “good chemical status.” Key pollution sources include agricultural and urban runoff , as well as wastewater discharges, which pose risks to biodiversity and public health, e.g. via recreational water use or drinking water abstraction.

At its core, the project seeks to apply and optimise bacteriophage-based pollution diagnostics. Bacteriophage are advantageous because they are highly abundant in faecal matter, persist longer in the environment than traditional bacterial indicators, and cannot replicate outside their hosts, making them reliable markers of contamination.