QuorumOctober 2016

SCELSESingapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering

1Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, www.scelse.sg

SCELSE’s project was one of 18 projects invited by PUB to

participate in an industry outreach and grant call event, which brings researchers and potential water industry partners together to build on innovative ideas and turn them

into commercial products.Prof. Stefan Wuertz, Dr Yingyu

Law, Dr Gayathri Natarajan and Dr Joeri Coppens presented their Anammox project titled “Adaptation of existing biological nutrient removal plants to achieve mainstream complete autotrophic nitrogen removal in Changi water reclamation plant”.

During the event, Dr Law observed that “there was an overwhelming

response from industry with a big turn out which gave us a good opportunity to showcase our progress to date.”

Other projects span from membrane technology and energy efficient wastewater treatment, to bioelectrochemical sensors for heavy metals.

These projects were selected based on the potential for commercialisation, and the event was intended to encourage collaborations between existing water technology companies in

Singapore and PUB-funded project teams. Collaborators are invited to put in an application to the grant call.

The Anammox project started two years ago and is funded by the PUB Environment and Water Industry Programme (EWI). The project is led by Prof. Wuertz as the principal investigator (PI), Dr Law, Dr Thomas Seviour and Dr Rohan Williams as co-PIs from SCELSE, and the

SCELSE is diversifying into biofilms and

novel food production technology in Singapore, to improve production of leafy vegetables in Singapore while requiring less land and water.

A major goal of this $10 million five-year project is to develop formulations of microbial communities that increase crop yields and reduce reliance on chemical pesticides.

SCELSE Deputy Research

Director (Environmental Engineering) A/Prof. Sanjay Swarup has been awarded a Competitive Research Programme (CRP) grant by the National Research Foundation (NRF) for the project to improve vegetable production in Singapore.

A/Prof. Swarup is the lead principal investigator (PI) of the project titled: “Novel integrated agrotechnologies, plant nutrients and microbials

for improved production of green leafy vegetables in Singapore”. Co-PIs include Prof. Li Jun, Prof. Zhou Weibiao, A/Prof. Loh Chiang Shiong, Prof. Ong Choon Nam and Prof. Naweed Naqvi from NUS.

In Singapore, due to the limitation of natural resources such as land and water, the development of novel food production technology is important to ensure food security. Current urban crop production practices rely on extensive land use, and require intensive input of water, energy and chemicals such as fertilisers and pesticides and are not suitable for

The International Union of Microbiological Societies

Congresses (IUMS2017) will be held for the first time in Singapore.

The event, which will take place from 17-21 July 2017 at the Sands Expo & Convention Centre, brings together three congresses: 15th International Congress of Bacteriology and Applied Microbiology, 15th International Congress of Mycology and Eukaryotic Microbiology and 17th International Congress of Virology.

Dr Daphne Ng, a research fellow in Asst Prof. Cao Bin’s group, is in the

organising committee and strongly encourages anyone interested to attend.

“Don’t miss this opportunity to meet, collaborate and network with over 3,000 microbiologists here in sunny Singapore!” she said.

Abstract submission is now open until 20th January 2017.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.iums2017singapore.com/

CalendarSCELSE Seminars

09 Nov: Asst Prof. James Kwan, NTU. “Bypassing Barriers: Ultrasound-Enhanced Drug Delivery to Cancer.” 3:00pm - 4:00pm. SBS-CR2.

22 Nov: Dr David Hernandez Santos, DropSens, Oviedo, Spain. 1:00pm - 3:00pm. SBS-CR2.

Group MeetingsEnvironmental Engineering meeting:Tuesdays 9am, B3 Meeting Room.

Kline Group meeting: Mondays 9:30am, B3 Meeting Room (please check with Kimberly prior to joining).

EventsFridays: Shut Up and Write! 9:00am. B3 Meeting Room.

04 - 05 Nov: SCELSE Annual Scientific Retreat. Amara Sanctuary Resort, Sentosa.

18 Nov: SCELSE Happy Hour. 5:00pm - 10:00pm. B2 Coffee Lounge.

Conferences 201717 - 21 Jul: International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS) Congresses 2017. Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, Singapore.

Biofilms for improved vertical crop production

IUMS Conference 2017 in Singapore

cont. p. 4

SCELSE project selected by PUB for commercialisation potential

SCELSE Anammox team with their project poster

cont. p. 4

Vertical farming of vegetables

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2 Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, www.scelse.sg

SCELSE staff profile

Urinary tract infections are the most common infections in hospital

settings, and 75% of these cases are associated with the placement of urinary catheters. About 6% of patients who receive a urinary catheter will suffer from catheter-associated UTI (CAUTI) within 10 days of catheterisation. This is a serious problem because patients with CAUTI can take longer to recover and face a higher risk of death.

Over 80% of UTI cases with no urinary catheter have an association with uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). However, when a urinary catheter is implanted, this proportion drops to only 50% of CAUTI cases, while the proportion of other bacterial species shifts. Notably, the association with Enterococcus faecalis increases from 5% to 15-30%.

Focusing on this curious observation, SCELSE researchers hypothesise that inflammation associated with catheterisation may create a window of susceptibility

to infection. Using a mouse CAUTI model, they performed global RNA expression profiling on whole bladders 24 hours after catheter implantation. They found an over-representation in the genes specific for immune cells such as macrophages, monocytes and granulocytes, suggesting that these cells infiltrate the bladder during catheterisation.

Immunostaining and spectral analysis of the bladders found that neutrophil numbers increased continuously for seven days after catheterisation. They also observed a significant increase in cytokines that induce maturation of neutrophils and monocytes.

A series of mouse experiments with infection using UPEC or E. faecalis was

initiated at various time points after catheterisation. The results suggest that the induced inflammation created an increased risk for UPEC infection in the first six hours and for E. faecalis at the time of implantation.

To test if bacterial colonisation by UPEC could be prevented, mice were treated with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMZ), an antibiotic combination commonly used to treat UTI. A single high-dose treatment almost entirely eliminated UPEC colonisation up to six hours after catherisation. Similar results were obtained when treating E. faecalis infections with carbenicillin at the time of catheter implantation.

Based on their findings, the authors propose the use of a single high-dose antibiotic treament at the time of catheter placement.

This simple and safe preventive treatment for CAUTI can be implemented immediately and help to alleviate this difficult and costly healthcare problem.

With the continuing advancement of high-throughput sequencing

approaches, the sheer volume of ‘omics data to be analysed requires interdisciplinary researchers with strong expertise in the interface between biology and computing. Dr Elena Gusareva has developed both of these skill sets in concert.

“During my scientific career I have evolved to be a researcher with broad knowledge and experience in different aspects of biomedical science and biostatistics,” she said.

Elena joined Prof. Stephan Schuster’s team at SCELSE in January 2016 as part of the Air Microbiome group and has been involved in two research projects so far. The first is a study on the microbial diversity and ecology of urban air.

“I participated in the design of the experiments and statistical analysis of the biological data. In particular, I have been involved in assessing diversity and abundance of microbial DNA yields in the air depending on time and space, as well as in assessing associations with meteorological factors such as temperature and daily rainfall,” she elaborated.

The project is already yielding some interesting results. “We demonstrated that the airborne microbial diversity and abundance generally follow a natural day cycle regardless of monsoon season in Singapore. This largely depends on daylight with high microbial abundance

in the dark hours and lower abundance in the light hours. Moreover, abundance of some species heavily depends on rain events, or highly correlates with temperature,” Elena revealed.

The second project is related to population genetics and evolutionary genomics, devoted to studying the genetic

diversity and ancestry of Asian populations.

“This project has been running as part of the Genome Asia 100K consortium,” she said.

Elena has established a collaboration between the Genome Asia 100K consortium and the Research Institute of Medical Genetics in Tomsk, Russia in order to collect samples from individuals of various ethnic groups for population genetics studies.

Elena began her research career in Russia. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from Tomsk State University in 2002 and attained her PhD in immunology and molecular biology at the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic in 2009. “My experimental data went into five first-author publications and one book chapter,” she recalled.

Later, Elena was awarded the “Human Frontier Science Program” postdoctoral travel grant to Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, followed by postdoctoral grants in bioinformatics at the University of Liege, Belgium.

“During the postdoctoral training, I

developed a protocol for genome-wide association interaction analysis in a large genome-scale data and successfully applied it to search for epistasis associated with Alzheimer’s disease. My results were also in part or fully implemented in an improved version of the MB-MDR software for epistasis detection,” she highlighted.

Elena then came to SCELSE because she was “excited by the prospect of an interesting project in an excellent location.” In her daily work, she felt that the biggest challenge is to keep track of new developments in the research field and continuously obtain new skills.

“I like to be involved in interesting and quickly developing projects, and being part of an active international team of researchers of varied expertise where you have an excellent opportunity to develop your skills and expand your scientific thinking,” she said.

For students who just started, Elena advises: “Work hard and further develop your scientific contacts. Constantly develop your skills, be proactive and stay positive.”

About life in Singapore, she said: “Being a Siberian, I am most excited about the weather in Singapore. For me, 35°C is much better than -45°C. Seriously speaking, I like the effectiveness, support and transparency of the Singapore system of organisation at all levels.”

Outside research, Elena is an avid traveller. “My family and I really travel a lot. We are excited to explore new places and learn new cultures. Also, since I was a child, I was always into fine art - painting and making some artistic crafts,” she said.

Elena GusarevaResearch Fellow

Antibiotic treatment during catheter placement prevents urinary tract infection

Publication profile

3Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, www.scelse.sg

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Latest SCELSE publications

SCELSE senior research fellow Dr Jamie Hinks was invited to speak at

the first Zing Conference on Organic Semiconductors held last month in Cavtat, Croatia.

The conference was chaired by Prof. Guillermo Bazan from University of California, Santa Barbara - who is also a visiting professor at SCELSE - and Prof. Natalie Stingelin from Imperial College London.

Dr Hinks shares his experience with this conference report:

Organic semi-conductors may seem a little outside of SCELSE’s remit. The truth is that some of the earliest bench work carried out in SCELSE premises was with organic semiconducting molecules. The aim of this early research was to improve charge transport in anodic biofilms in bioelectrochemical devices. This research effort is still ongoing and I travelled to Croatia talk about the interaction of organic semiconductors

with biological membranes. Specifically, the latest findings on the lipidomic response of E. faecalis to the insertion of semiconducting molecules, work executed primarily by Gayatri Chilambi and Dr Rafi Rashid, was presented to a

group of the world’s most accomplished materials scientists and physicists including Sir Richard Friend.

One of the secondary aims of the conference was to scope out future directions for the field and I had the honour of being among 12 of the speakers selected to contribute to a

closed session to define opportunities and weakness in the field. As the only biological scientist there I promoted the idea, a continuation of my talk, that opportunities exist at the bio-interface and that only by understanding the

interaction of organic semiconductors with biological membranes we can begin to harness the potential of bioelectronics.

Zing conferences are ‘not for profit’ events held in specially selected, serene environments that facilitate communication between members of the allied sciences. And the Hotel Croatia Cavtat was exemplary. Overlooking a nudist beach in the warm, crystal clear waters of the Adriatic was the perfect place to unwind and reflect on the many high quality talks at the conference. While

the leaders of the field are naturally present at each Zing conference, space is given for scientists at all stages of their carer to have a voice. The atmosphere in Croatia was relaxed and questions from the floor were challenging but borne out of genuine curiosity rather than being confrontational.

Zing Conference on Organic Semiconductors

SCELSE social

Conferencereport

View of the bay from Hotel Croatia Cavtat

Left: SCELSE students Chew Su Chuen and Harikrishnan Nair successfully defended their PhD theses!

A/Prof. Scott Rice and Asst Prof. Yang Liang held a celebration for them at the B2 coffee lounge.

Congratulations to Su and Hari for their achievement!

Left: Congratulations to HR manager Thana for receiving her NTU 10-year long service award, presented here by Prof. Kjelleberg!

Above: A team of SCELSE members, friends, and supporters participated in the NTU Staff Games 7-a-side football tournament.

The team successfully entered the semifinals after winning matches against NTU Admin and HSS/ADM teams. However, the EEE/CEE team emerged as the winner of the tournament.

Tremendous effort by the SCELSE team!

Above: The inaugural NIMBELS grant call and happy hour networking session was attended by over 60 people.

Profs. Staffan Kjelleberg and Peter Preiser announced the grant call, intended to facilitate joint research projects between the four units of the NIMBELS cluster.

Special thanks to Smitha and Alina for organising this successful event!

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4 Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, www.scelse.sg

SCELSE student profile

This month’s student profile features Prasanna Jogdeo!

Tell us a bit about your work in SCELSE.

In SCELSE, as a part of my PhD programme, I work on “Microbially influenced corrosion of stainless steel by mixed microbial marine community”. I am trying to define a interdisciplinary approach to monitor early stage corrosion combining electrochemistry, imaging techniques and meta-omics approaches. My work so far included developing and validating an electrochemical flowcell system as well as a fed batch electrochemical cell suitable for corrosion studies. This fundamental research will contribute to understand the complex metal-biofilm interactions

in seawater and in the end to design new anti-corrosion coatings.

I am from the Microbial Biofilms cluster and work under the supervision of Assoc Prof. Scott Rice.

Dr Enrico Marsili is my co-supervisor and Assoc Prof. Federico Lauro is my mentor.

Any interesting findings or experiences so far?

It has been a steep learning curve for me, since it’s a new area. Most of the work so far has been done with axenic cultures whereas we are looking at the effect of mixed

community. Combining different techniques like electrochemistry, imaging and meta-omics gives us a better understanding of the corrosion process. It has been a challenging but interesting journey so far.

What excites you and what makes you go zzzzzz?

Theatre is my passion. I have been acting for almost 15 years now. Back in India, I did a few professional plays and here in Singapore I have been working with a theatre group for the past three years. Acting relaxes me and gives me positive energy.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what would you want to bring with you?

It will be very depressing to be alone. But maybe some good music and a bottle of Scotch!

Fill in the blanks: When _____ , I _____.

When I am stressed, I cook.

Anything you would like to say to fellow students?

Please have a good balance between academic and social life. Although completing the PhD is important, try to enjoy the learning process during PhD while enjoying the life outside PhD.

Prasanna JogdeoPhD Student

SCELSE project selected by PUB (from p. 1)

Biofilms for improved vertical crops (from p. 1)

Singapore.Thus the project goal is to establish

and utilise novel technology platforms and microbials to improve the production and enhance nutritional benefits of the Asian green leafy vegetables in Singapore. This will be achieved via the development of integrated solutions tailored to urban crop production by utilising the synergy between plant traits, their associated microbes and physico-chemical traits of soil substratum and light.

The four specific objectives in the project are: Growth and Beneficial Nutrients in Vegetables (GNV), Effective Microbial Solutions (EMS), Cost-effective Agrotechnologies (CEA) and Integration towards Value-added Vegetables (IVV).

In particular, EMS involves the

team includes Dr Coppens, Dr Natarajan, Dr Ding Zhiji, Ms Sara Swa Thi and Ms Cheryl Tsan.

Dr Natarajan felt that the poster networking session facilitated the sharing of ongoing

Newsletter contactsFreddie: limlenghiong@ntu.edu.sg

Sharon: sharonlongford@ntu.edu.sg

research work with potential industry partners and served as a starting point for companies to begin further engagement and seek partnerships.

Such events emphasise PUB’s constant support to fund technically feasible, economically viable and engineering-focused solutions for developing energy efficient water treatment processes.

Industrial partnerships will help the Anammox process developed at SCELSE to move to pilot scale and provide an opportunity for researchers to validate the technology under continuous real operating conditions.

The event allowed participants to learn more about the multi-disciplinary research done in NUS, NTU and other research institutes in Singapore in the field of water research.

“I believe that such impactful collaborations between SCELSE and industrial partners would be a win-win situation to merge science and process development,” Dr Natarajan said.

In addition to the networking session, PUB also shared their research and development roadmap to meet Singapore’s growing water demand and latest focus areas for funding in both basic and applied water research.

microbial communities of the vegetables to improve plant nutrients and defense against urban pests and

diseases, thereby increasing yields and reducing reliance on chemical inputs. This is done by profiling one or two selected vegetables for beneficial bacteria and fungi in the region around the roots in order to develop beneficial microbial consortia to significantly improve plant growth and nutrient uptake, and increase tolerance to stress.

These efforts will help create a new process to develop formulations of beneficial microbes for improving the production of leafy vegetables in Singapore by 2022, which will directly benefit the vegetable business.

A/Prof. Swarup plans to start first at the laboratory scale, followed by test bedding and field trials in partnership with the largest agrotechnology farm in Singapore. The project team will focus on 3-4 types of green leafy vegetables such as the common Brassica spp and Amaranthus spp.

Conceptual framework of novel integrated agrotechnologies, plant nutrients and microbials for

improved production of green leafy vegetables