School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo　Research Center for Water Environment Technology

Approximately 2 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water at home and as a result the incidence of morbidity and mortality for over a quarter of the world population is unacceptably high. A key reason for the lack of safe drinking water in affected communities is the absence of safe sanitation which in turns results in contamination of water sources and recontamination of treated water with infectious waterborne pathogens including enteric viruses, the focus of this presentation, and background chemicals making the task of water disinfection more challenging. Effective control of viral pathogens in drinking water will require broad strategies with main focus on advancing science and technology. The current knowledge about inactivation kinetics and mechanisms of viral pathogens is limited and there are no commercial sensors capable of detecting infectious viruses. However, recent advances in molecular biology are allowing significant breakthroughs. This presentation will address efforts by an inter/trans-disciplinary team of investigators from the fields of virology, biochemistry and water quality engineering focusing on an integrated approach to study inactivation kinetics, elucidate inactivation mechanisms and develop sensors that detect infectious viruses in water samples.