All posts filed under “Uncategorized

IBET collaboration

Excited to announce a new collaboration with the University of Michigan and Argonne National Lab. We are going to put methanogens to work to recover bioenergy from organic waste streams. PhD student Dan Stockard will be leading our group’s laboratory efforts for biofilm reactor design, operation, and microbial community analysis.

Check out the announcement from Argonne here!

Postdoc application open

We are currently seeking postdoc applications to support research in nitrogen recovery from wastewater starting in fall/winter 2021 on an NSF-funded project. The candidate will work at the interface of bioprocess engineering, environmental microbiology, and synthetic biology to develop novel microbial bioprocesses for nitrogen recovery as value-added products from wastewater.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. To apply, please email a cover letter describing research experience and interests, a curriculum vitae, the names and contact information of three references, and 2 representative peer-reviewed publications to George Wells (george.wells@northwestern.edu) and Keith Tyo (k-tyo@northwestern.edu).

Check out the full solicitation here: https://bit.ly/2YIM2uQ

Denitrifying PAO and GAO cooperation

Denitrifying PAO and GAO cooperation – new paper published!

Denitrifying phosphorus accumulating organisms (often abbreviated to DPAOs) are a promising group of microbes for resource efficient nitrogen and phosphorus removal. Yubo Wang and Han Gao examined the potentially cooperative relationship between denitrifying phosphorus accumulating organisms and glycogen accumulating organisms using metagenomics and metatranscriptomics. Their results are published in Environmental Microbiology – Integrated omics analyses reveal differential gene expression and potential for cooperation between denitrifying polyphosphate and glycogen accumulating organisms

Stefanie GRF

Congrats to 2nd year PhD candidate Stefanie Huttelmaier on receiving the NSF GRF award!

Nutrient removal and recovery review

Nutrient removal and recovery review

Our newest publication is out now in ACS ES&T Engineering, titled Systematic Evaluation of Emerging Wastewater Nutrient Removal and Recovery Technologies to Inform Practice and Advance Resource Efficiency”, the result of a collaboration with Will Tarpeh, Anna Kogler, and Sebastien Tilmens at Stanford University. We reviewed and synthesized information from over 150 nutrient removal and recovery technologies to guide technology development, provide best practices for research reporting, and connect practitioners to research efforts.

June 2019

  • Congratulations to Dr. Morgan Petrovich on completing her Ph.D.!  Morgan’s thesis is entitled “Metagenomics-Guided Analysis of Antibiotic Resistance and Production Genes, Mobile Genetic Elements, and Viruses in Wastewater Treatment Bioreactors”.  Morgan will be joining Exponent in Oakland, CA this fall.  
  • George participates in the “Circular Water Economy” symposium at the University of Minnesota.

October 2017

  • Qiteng Feng defends his masters thesis on “Community structure and oxygen affinity of ammonia and nitrite oxidizing bacteria in mainstream nitrifying and nitritation-anammox bioreactors.”  Congratulations, Qiteng!

September 2017

  • Alex Rosenthal, Han Gao, Jamie LaVergne, and George Wells present work from the Wells research group at WEFTEC 2017 in Chicago, IL
  • George presents new results on DPAOs and the CANDO+P process for energy recovery from waste nitrogen at the AWRA on “Cutting Edge Solutions to Wicked Water Problems” in Tel Aviv, Israel