Project: Phage treatment and wetland technology as intervention strategy to prevent dissemination of antibiotic resistance in surface waters
| Acronym | PhageLand (Reference Number: JPIAMR_2021_P002) |
| Duration | 01/02/2022 - 31/01/2025 |
| Project Topic | PhageLand aims to develop a novel intervention strategy combining the low-cost and eco-friendly purification capacity of passive treatment systems, namely constructed wetlands (CW), with a dedicated phage-based treatment to prevent the transmission of antibiotic resistance (AR) from wastewater into surface waters. PhageLand includes public health investigations targeting multidrug-resistant bacterial (ARB) pathogens in low-middle income countries (LMICs) in Eastern Europe. The phage-based treatment will be specifically tailored to eliminate these multidrug-resistant pathogens from wastewater. In parallel, PhageLand aims to assess: a) the self-purification capacity of model full-scale CWs operating in Spain and Moldova in removing antibiotic residues, ARB and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs); and b) the potential risk associated with the dissemination of ARB and ARGs within indigenous bacterial communities and among animals inhabiting CWs. Experimental tasks will include field and laboratory experiments involving cutting-edge chemical, biotechnological and (meta)genomic techniques as well as animal testing. Finally, a pilot-scale infrastructure will be used to scale-up the PhageLand technology and to assess its performance under real environmental conditions. This proof-of-concept will be used to demonstrate the efficacy and scalability of this nature-based technology for combating AR and to encourage stakeholders for its implementation in wastewater treatment, particularly in LMICs where costly and power-demanding treatment plants are difficult to set up. |
| Website | visit project website |
| Network | JPIAMR-ACTION |
| Call | 1st JPIAMR-ACTION Joint Call 2021 |
Project partner
| Number | Name | Role | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Catalan Institute for Water Research | Coordinator | Spain |
| 2 | University of Warsaw | Partner | Poland |
| 3 | Warsaw University of Life Sciences | Partner | Poland |
| 4 | KU Leuven | Partner | Belgium |
| 5 | Quadram Institute Bioscience | Partner | United Kingdom |
| 6 | Delft University of Technology | Partner | Netherlands |
| 7 | Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy | Partner | Moldova |