Biography:

Maria Teresa Giardi has worked as the manager of research at the National Council of Research (IC-CNR) in Rome till 2015. She is now associated to CNR, working at the company Biosensor srl as research director and CEO. Her background is in industrial chemistry with extensive experience in biochemistry and molecular biology; her main interest is on photosynthetic protein stabilization and utilization in biosensors for real toxicity environmental monitoring. She is a supervisor-coordinator of several national and international projects in the field of biosensors based on plants and microorganisms and of European Space Agency’s projects involving space flights of engineered microorganisms to low orbit and to International Space

Abstract:

Tons of chemical compounds derived from human and industrial activities are incessantly threatening our environment. Current approaches for monitoring of pollutants include precise and accurate assessment of individual compounds
by chemical analyses, which are however unable to provide information about bioavailability, effect on living organisms, and synergistic or antagonistic behaviour in mixtures, thus requiring combination with biomarker assays and ecosystem monitoring. These methodology strategy is time and labour intensive, demands ex-situ collection at individual locations and extensive sample preparation, and has elevated costs depending on the complexity.
                 To overcome these challenges, biosensor and bioassay technology can furnish advanced devices for water monitoring with greater efficiency. Indeed, integrated, cost-effective, easy to use, and fast biosensors can be projected to characterize the extent of pollution at relevant spatio-temporal scales and in terms of ecological effects. Despite this great potential, most of the published works focused on analyses of fresh water, mainly because of the highly demanding working environment that seawater constitutes. To face the challenges posed by real environments, biosensors need to be fully automated, very robust (resistant to physical impacts, high corrosion, and biofouling), drift-free or with accurate calibration, with minimal power consumption, user-friendly, and enough sensitive to measure pollutants at very low concentrations. Several examples of biosensor development for marine measurements of eutrophication, pesticides, anti-biofouling agents, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, endocrine disruptors, trace metals, organism detection and algal toxins have been described in literature.
Algal biosensors react very broadly to toxicity and their detection mechanism frequently relies on measurement of the photosynthetic activity caused by 33% of pesticides actually in the market. Biosensing applications of photosynthetic organisms are based on the inhibition of the electron transfer occurring after a few minutes exposure of photosystem II (PSII) to certain pollutants, or to adverse physicochemical conditions changing the local chemical equilibrium. Indeed, when pollutants such as photosynthetic pesticides are present and encounter the photosystem, they can bind the reaction centre D1 protein and
directly or indirectly inhibit the transport of electrons from the primary acceptor, plastoquinone A (QA), to the secondary quinone (QB) along the photosynthetic chain. This inhibition results in a variation of PSII fluorescence emission in a pollutant concentration-dependent manner that can be monitored by optical transduction. Based on this approach, several microalgal biosensors have been designed for pesticide and heavy metal detection in fresh water. However, hyper-saline conditions present in marine environment and stress conditions during environmental monitoring may affect the photosynthetic process resulting in significant changes in the bioassay performance. Herein we present the development of an optical bioassay for detection of photosynthetic pesticides from different chemical classes in real water samples by exploiting various green microalgae strains. Therefore, the main objectives were to select the most appropriate microalgae strains to achieve stability and adaptability into real matrices, and to develop a bioassay integrated with portable fluorescence instrumentation allowing pesticide detection at relevant environmental concentrations. Several microalgae species from Chlorophyceae, Trebouxiophyceae, Dinoflagellates, Diatoms and Eustigmatophyceae groups with different marine and non-marine origins, including fresh water and soil, were analysed. Lipid content of selected microalgae suggested that C. mirabilis and symbiotic associations between C.vulgaris and protozoa were the microorganisms with higher potential to acclimate to high salinity environments being mainly constituted by unsaturated lipids involved in responses to several environmental stresses.

Among the wide range of microalgae species, which have been employed to develop biosensor technology, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was especially studied since it possess a number of features that suite perfectly the requirements of an early warning environmental biosensor. It is a grass organism, easily cultivable having 8 hours doubling time and it can grow with or without carbon source, besides, it is easily transformable and all 3 genomes are sequenced. Recent our efforts have focused on increasing the stability and selectivity of PSII from microalgae for the detection of different subclasses of pollutants. These goals were achieved by using the alga C. reinhardtii mutated at the D1 protein herbicide-binding site by site-directed mutagenesis. C. reinhardtii was also modified introducing in the chloroplast antioxidant peptides, known in food able to reduce the content of free radicals, thus lessening the photooxidative membrane damage. Measurements of in-vivo antioxidant activity showed that mutant strains have improved their survival rate in the presence of singlet oxygen precursors, which highly exceeds the survival rate of control algae, showing increased stability and sensitivity for biosensor applications.
Beyond these scientific achievements, nowadays the market needs highly specific and precise in situ measurement devices able to collect and send the data in real-time for periods of months without maintenance under multi-stressors. These devices demand more robust algal biomediators. Thus, the challenge is the preservation of the algal photosynthetic functionality when
integrated with electronic components or operated under fluctuating  nvironmental conditions. To this end C. reinhardtii mutants able to quench 1O2 and other ROS, were integrated into a newly developed miniature and portable electrochemical/ optical device, to measure and collect PSII data in real-time for long periods. Several photosynthetic pollutants spiked in real samples were detected within 10 min in concentrations between ng/L-μg/L and the different algae species tested showed diverse pesticide sensitivities.
Always towards to increase the biomediator performance, biomimetic peptides of the photosynthetic D1 binding niche of the microalgae C. reinhardtii were developed, both by chemical and biological synthesis, as suggested by in silico analysis. Standing out among the others, the biomimetic mutant peptide, D1pepS268C, bound to specific quantum dots, showed high ability to mimic the microalgae in binding pesticides. Replacement of whole microalgae cells or their photosynthetic apparatus by mimetic peptide improved the system in terms of stability.
This approach allowed also the integration of the biomediators with quantum dots and innovative stretchable printed electrodesbased electrochemical biosensor as a wearable point-of-use screening tool for toxicity environmental analyses.

Biography:

Abdullah Mohammed O Farasani received his PhD from Reading University, UK in 2016 for his work on genotoxicity of cosmetic chemicals in human breast epithelial cells. He is currently working as the head of Genetic Unit in the MLT Department at Jazan University, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract:

Dermal absorption of components of underarm cosmetics may be a contributory factor in breast cancer development. Aluminium (Al) salts are added as the active antiperspirant agent, and cyclic volatile methylsiloxanes (cVMS) are used for purposes of conditioning and spreading. Al has been measured in human breast tissue, breast cyst fluid, nipple aspirate fluid and milk: Al levels in breast tissue have been recently reported to be a risk factor for breast cancer in young women. cVMS have been measured in human milk. The objectives of this study were to investigate any genotoxic effects of exposure to the antiperspirant salts Al chloride and Al chlorohydrate, and to the cVMS hexamethylcyclotrisiloxane (D3), octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4) and decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5) in immortalized non-transformed human breast epithelial cells. All these compounds enabled a dose-dependent  growth of the non-transformed cells in suspension culture, which is an established marker of transformation. DNA damage was demonstrated using a comet assay. Long term (≥20 weeks) exposure to these compounds also resulted in loss of expression (mRNA and protein) of the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 which is a key gene in the repair of DNA in breast cells. Alterations to expression of other DNA repair genes at an mRNA level will be presented. If these compounds can both damage DNA and compromise DNA repair systems, then there is the potential for breast carcinogenesis.

Biography:

Seyed Jamaleddin Shahtaheri completed his PhD from Surrey University, Guildford, England in 1996. He is an Academic Member of the Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, acting as the Dean Research Deputy at the Institute for Environmental Research at the same university. He is a Member of the Persistent Organic Pollutant Review Committee (POPRC) under the Stockholm Convention, UNEP, UN. He has published more than 150 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of seven national and international journals.

Abstract:

Background: Measurement of pesticides in biological matrices is a serious challenge for researches because of their very low concentration in different matrices. The aim of this study was to develop a new sample preparation method with high accuracy, validity, simplicity as well as a short retention time for chromatographic determination of the pesticide malathion.
Methods: Dispersive liquid-liquid micro-extraction (DLLME) technique coupled with high performance liquid chromatography equipped with ultra violet detector (HPLC-UV) was developed for trace extraction and determination of pesticide malathion in human urine samples. One variable at a time (OVAT) method was used to optimize parameters affecting the malathion extraction. Different parameters such as extraction solvent, disperser solvent, volume of the extraction solvent, volume of the disperser solvent, centrifugation time and speed salt addition, and sample pH were studied and optimized.
Results: Under the optimized conditions, the limit of detection and enrichment factor of the developed procedure were 0.5 μgL-1 and 200, respectively. The calibration curve was linear in the concentration range of 2-250 μgL-1. The relative standard deviation for six replicate experiments at 200 μgL-1 concentration was less than 3%. The relative recoveries of spiked urine
samples were 96.3%, 101.7% and 97.3% at three different concentration levels of 50, 200, and 1000 μgL-1, respectively.
Conclusion: According to the obtained results, DLLME procedure was successfully developed for the extraction of malathion from human urine samples. Compared to other extraction techniques, the proposed procedure had some advantages such as shorter extraction time, better reproducibility, and higher enrichment factor.

Biography:

Angela Pinzon-Espinosa is a Water Scientist working at the interface between Microbiology and Chemistry. Her research interests are directed towards the link between water quality, health, environment, and the different strategies to tackle water pollution. Her current research focuses on the detection and identification of toxic chemicals in industrial effluents using luminescent bacteria, and the development of low-cost clean-up technologies targeting refining chemicals. She is particularly interested in the science behind pollution control and the use of science for regulatory purposes, but keen on expanding her expertise to environmental management aiming to provide clean and safe water.

Abstract:

Refining transforms crude oil into marketable products with high commercial value, providing a third of the global energy requirements and numerous raw materials. The process, however, emits vast amounts of wastewater that can have harmful effects on wildlife and human health but the link between chemistry and observed toxicity is fragile because little progress has been made in determining causative agents. Consequently, current treatment technologies are not targeting key toxicants nor providing safe effluents. Here we show that naphthenic acids are important components of refining wastewater, resulting from the processing of heavy crude oil, and that they have an important contribution to the toxic effects exerted by these effluents. Furthermore, we found that their chemical stability makes them highly resistant to remediation using bacteria and Fe-TAML/ H₂O₂ systems under laboratory conditions, and only sequential aliquots of Fe-TAML catalysts and H₂O₂ showed to degrade naphthenic acids (50 ppm) within 72 hours. We anticipate our results to be a starting point for better environmental regulations relevant to refining wastewater resulting from heavy crude oil, as naphthenic acids are not currently considered in the effluent guidelines for the refining sector. Furthermore, the degradation of naphthenic acids under mild conditions using Fe-TAML/ H₂O₂ systems indicates that these catalysts hold promise for the remediation of refining wastewater in real-life scenarios.

Biography:

Jianhua YAO has her expertise in Chemoinformatics and its applications in all domains which relate to Chemistry. She has studied prediction of compounds properties for more than 10 years and developed prediction system of acute toxicity, mutagenic toxicity and carcinogenic toxicity. These systems have been applied in environmental protection.

Abstract:

A compound is a chemical entity consisting of two or more different atoms combined by chemical bonds. Their properties are basically physical, chemical, biological, toxicological, etc., and depend on their chemical structure. Toxicity is one of the properties of compounds, and is related to their chemical structures. Toxicology involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and is a discipline related to biology, chemistry, pharmacology, medicine, and nursing. Its research content includes: symptoms, mechanism, treatment and determination of poisoning. Generally, in toxicology, there are six types of toxicity: acute, mutagenic, irritative, carcinogenic, reproductive, and multiple doses. To obtain the toxicity evaluation of compounds, traditionally, people evaluated their toxicities by microbiological, animal experiments, or got them from human events reports.
With the increment of experimental data, development of computer science and chemoinformatics technology, computer aided prediction toxicity of compounds become another effective way to obtain information about toxicity of compounds step by step. At present, it is being applied in related fields, such as chemical toxicity assessment concerning environmental protection, food
industry, study of TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), agricultural production and pharmaceutical industry, and plays a key role. Actually, in computer aided prediction toxicity of compounds, combination of data mining, analysis of relationship between reliable experimental data and chemical structures was used to obtain the knowledge/rules which would be employed to predict toxicity of a compound based on its chemical structure. Herein, two works of our group will be presented: strategies and methods of computeraided
prediction of toxicity and; evaluation of toxicity for a pesticide and its metabolites, formulating plans of environmental protection.

Biography:

Fawei Yan, studied his Masters of Engineering in School of Natural Resources and Environment, Renmin University of China, majoring in Environmental Science from 2014 to 2017. During school time (2010-2017), he participated in many research programs, for example, PM_2.5 Formation, Lignocellulose Degradation (Microorganism), Waste Combustion, Soil Analysis and so on. Especially, he took part in the research Antibiotics Degradation in Water in University of Nebraska Lincoln, USA for almost 2 months in 2013. Now he work in the Planning and Development Department, Beijing New International Airport. He has his expertise in Environment Research such as PM_2.5, waste combustion. His research interests are PM_2.5 Generation and Green Airport.

Abstract:

PM_2.5 now is a very hot topic in China and the government is taking sustained efforts to resolve this problem. Especially, in Beijing, restricting vehicles, restriction on constructions, closing low-end factories that contaminate the environment, are several means to reduce the PM_2.5 generation by all respects. However, PM_2.5 emerges from many sources, including natural and anthropogenic discharges. One of the main anthropogenic sources is combustion. Fuel burning is a very important source. Many researchers have deeply studied the formation of PM_2.5 from coal combustion or oil combustions. However, the research on PM_2.5 from other combustions is a rarity. Hence, several materials were combusted including plastic, wood and glass as the research subjects in the same operation condition in this study. These three represent three kinds of materials, chemical organic matter, organic biomass and inorganic matter. Information such as PM_2.5 production and PM_2.5 morphology were collected. The findings suggested that different wastes would exhibit different PM_2.5 emission potentials in the same combustion operation condition and the morphologies of PM_2.5 from various combustion sources is also identifiable. By weighing the filter mass increase before and after combustion, the PM_2.5 yields could be calculated. Also by using SEM to analyze the PM_2.5 collected on the filter, PM_2.5 morphology is analyzed. Plastic combustion bears the highest PM_2.5 discharge potential during incomplete burning with tremendous spherical particulates in the images. Glass bears no PM_2.5 discharge potential for its incombustible properties. While wood would generate PM_2.5 in an irregular shape with a moderate production

Biography:

Sadia Nasreen did her Doctorate in Environmental Engineering from China in 2015 with Professor Liu Hui. She specializes in catalysis of biofuel. Besides catalysis, her research interests include waste water treatment. Currently, she is working as an Assistant Professor at the University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila Pakistan.

Abstract:

Biodiesel, a promising alternative diesel fuel produced by a catalytic transesterification of vegetable oils, has become more attractive nowadays, because of its environmental concerns and the fact that it is made from renewable resources. In this work, the transesterification of soybean oil with methanol has been studied in a heterogeneous system, using Zn, Mn, K and Ce supported by a mixture of porcelain, cinder and ceramic. 0.5 and 1 mm of Zn, Mn, K and Ce in 7 g of support were loaded, followed by calcinations at 600°C for 4h. Fresh and used catalyst were characterized by means of various spectroscopic techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and TG conversion was checked by HPLC. It has been observed that 1M ZnCO₃ loaded in the support gives 93% TG conversion