Research Projects

Morales Medina, W.R., D'Elia, S., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  2022.  Accumulation of SARS-CoV-2 in sewer biofilms.  ACS ES&T Water.  doi: 10.1021/acsestwater.1c00345 

Fahrenfeld, N.L., Morales Medina, W.R., D'Elia, S., Modica, M., Ruiz, A., McLane, M.  2022.  Comparison of residential dormitory COVID-19 monitoring via weekly saliva testing and sewage monitoring.  Science of the Total Environment.  18(25): 151947.  

Morales Medina, W.R., Eramo, A., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  2021. Metabolically active prokaryotes and actively transcribed antibiotic resistance genes in sewers systems: Implications for public health and microbially induced corrosion.  Microbial Ecology.

Morales Medina, W.R., Eramo, A., Tu, M., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  2020. Sewer biofilm microbiome and antibiotic resistance genes as function of pipe material, source of microbes, and disinfection: field and laboratory studies.  Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology.

Eramo, A., Morales Medina, W.R., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  2020.  Factors associated with elevated levels of antibiotic resistance genes in sewer sediments and wastewater.  Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology.  6, 1697-1710.

Fahrenfeld, N. and Bisceglia, K. 2016. Sewer surveillance for monitoring antibiotic use and prevalence of antibiotic resistance: urban sewer epidemiology. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology.  2: 788-799.

Blackburne, B., Fahrenfeld, N., and Rodenburg, L. Factors controlling antibiotic levels in biosolids. (Oral presentation) 252nd American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition. Philadelphia, PA. August 20, 2016.

Antibiotic resistance in riverine, agricultural, reclaimed water, and wastewater systems

Deshpande, A.S., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  2023.  Influence of DNA from non-viable sources on the riverine water and biofilm microbiome, resistome, mobilome, and resistance gene host assignments.  Journal of Hazardous Materials. 130743. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.130743 

Desphande, A.S., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  2022. Abundance, diversity, and host assignment of total, intracellular, and extracellular antibiotic resistance genes in riverbed sediments.  Water Research.  217(15): 118363 .

Gallego, S., Barkay, T., Fahrenfeld, N.L. 2020.  Tagging the vanA gene in wastewater microbial communities for cell sorting and taxonomy of vanA carrying cells.  Science of the Total Environment. doi:  10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138865 

Eramo, A.,  Morales Medina, W.R.,  Fahrenfeld, N. 2019.  Viability-based quantification of antibiotic resistance genes and fecal markers in wastewater effluent and receiving waters.  Science of the Total Environment.  656: 495-502. 

Fahrenfeld, N., Knowlton, K. Krometis, L.A., Hession, W.C.,  Xia, K., Lipscomb, E. Libuit, K., Green, B.L., Pruden, A.  2014.  Manure application’s effect on levels of antibiotic resistance genes and their attenuation rates in soil: Field-scale mass balance approach.  Environmental Science and Technology.  48(5):2643-2650.

Fahrenfeld, N., Ma, Y., O’Brien, M., Pruden, A.  2013.  Reclaimed water as a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes: distribution systems and irrigation scenarios.  Frontiers in Microbiology.  4(130).

Olonitola, O.S., Fahrenfeld, N., Pruden, A. 2015. Antibiotic resistance profiles among mesophilic aerobic bacteria in Nigerian chicken litter and associated antibiotic resistance genes. Poultry Science. 94 (5), 867-874.

Combined sewer overflow end-of-pipe treatment

Eramo, A.,* Blanc, S., Fahrenfeld, N.  2019. Settling and peracetic acid for end-of-pipe treatment of sul1-carrying indicator organisms and impact on receiving water.  ASCE Journal of Environmental Engineering.  145(10): 04019064. 

Eramo, A., Morales Medina, W., Fahrenfeld, N.  2017.  Peracetic acid disinfection of combined sewer overflows:  antibiotic resistance genes, indicator organisms, and microbial community.  Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology.  3.  1061-1072.

Eramo, A., Delos Reyes, H., Fahrenfeld, N.  2017.  Partitioning of antibiotic resistance genes and fecal indicators varies intra and inter-storm during combined sewer overflows.  Frontiers in Microbiology.  8.

Parmar, S., Arbuckle-Keil, G.A., Kumi, G., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  2023.  Urban stormwater microplastic size distribution and impact of subsampling on polymer diversity. Environmental Sciences Processes & Impacts.  doi: 10.1039/D3EM00172E

Sipps, K., Walsh, K., Arbuckle-Keil, G., Chant, R. Fahrenfeld, N.L., Garzio, L., Walsh, K., Saba, G.   2022.  Pervasive occurrence of microplastics in Raritan-Hudson estuary zooplankton. Science of the Total Environment.  152812   doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152812 

Boni, W., Arbuckle-Keil, G., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  2022.  Inter-storm variation in microplastic concentration and polymer type at stormwater outfalls and a bioretention basin.  Science of the Total Environment.  809: 151104.  doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151104 

Bailey, K., Sipps, K., Saba, G.K., Arbuckle-Keil, G., Chant, R.J., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  2021.  Quantification and composition of microplastics in the Raritan Hudson Estuary: comparison to pathways of entry and implications for fate.  Chemosphere. 272: 129886. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129886

Boni, W., Parrish, K., Patil, S., Fahrenfeld, N.  2021.  Fecal coliform and E. coli in microplastic biofilms grown in wastewater and inactivation by peracetic acid.  Water Environment Research.  93 (3) 334-342.  doi: 10.1002/wer.1434 . 

Parrish, K., Fahrenfeld, N.  2019.  Microplastic biofilm in fresh- and wastewater as a function of microparticle type and size class.  Environmental Science Water Research & Technology.  doi:  10.1039/C8EW00712H 

Fahrenfeld, N., Arbuckle-Keil, G., Naderi Beni, N., Bartelt-Hunt, S.  2019. Source tracking microplastics in the freshwater environment.  Trends in Analytical Chemistry.  

Estahbanati, S. and Fahrenfeld, N. 2016. Influence of of wastewater treatment plant discharges on microplastic concentrations in surface waters.  Chemosphere.  162: 277-284.

Microbial (fecal) source tracking

Phelan, S., Soni, D., Morales Medina, W.R., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  2019. Comparison of qPCR and amplicon sequencing based methods for fecal source tracking in a mixed land use estuarine watershed.  Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology.  5, 2108-2123.

Fahrenfeld, N.,  Del Monaco, N., Coates, J., Elzerman, A.W.  2016.  Fecal sterol and runoff analysis for nonpoint source tracking.  Journal of Environmental Quality.   45 (1), 315-322.

Huddleston, G.M., Warner, M.B., Jolley, L.W., Fahrenfeld, N.L., Elzerman, A.W., Molina, M., Lee., Y.J., Swank, R.R.  2008.  (Proceedings Paper). Fecal coliform bacteria TMDL implementation on Cane Creek and Little Cane Creek in Oconee County, South Carolina.  Proceedings of the 2008 South Carolina Water Resources Conference.  Charleston, S.C.  October 14-15, 2008.

Drinking water microbiome

Morales Medina, W.R., To, P., Taylor, M, Nguyen, C., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  2023.  Acclimation, manganese removal, and backwash impact on full-scale drinking water biofilter microbiome.  AWWA Water Science.  5(2): e1334.  doi: 10.1002/aws2.1334

Blanc, S., Pender, D., Gennaro, M., Vinnard, C., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  Nontuberculous mycobacteria in the biofilm microbiome of private well and premise plumbing.  Environmental Engineering Science.  doi: 10.1089/ees.2020.0528

Blanc, S., Robinson, D., Fahrenfeld, N.L.  2021. Potential for nontuberculous mycobacteria proliferation in natural and engineered water systems due to climate change: a literature review.  City and Environment Interactions.  11: 100070. doi: 10.1016/j.cacint.2021.100070

Parikh, A., Vinnard, C., Fahrenfeld, N., Davidow, A., Gow, A., Lardizabal, A., Patrawalla, A., Panettieri, R., Gennaro, M.  2019.  Revisiting John Snow to meet the challenge of nontuberculous mycobacterial disease.  International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health.  16(21), 4250.  doi:  10.3390/ijerph16214250

Unconventional oil and gas wastewater

Fahrenfeld, N., Delos Reyes, H., Eramo, A., Akob, D.M., Mumford, A, Cozzarelli, I.M. 2017. Shifts in microbial community structure and function in unconventional oil and gas waste impacted surface waters revealed by metagenomics. Science of the Total Environment.  580: 1205-1213. 

Biodegradation

•      Nitroaromatics (2,4,6-trinitrotoluene) 

Ahmed, N., Fahrenfeld, N. Reactive transport modeling of branched TNT biodegradation pathway. (Poster) NJ AWWA Annual Conference. Atlantic City, NJ. March 18, 2015.

Fahrenfeld, N., Pruden, A., Widdowson, M. 2015. Kinetic and pathway modeling of reductive 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene biodegradation with different electron donors. Journal of Environmental Engineering. 141 (8):.

Fahrenfeld, N., Zoeckler, J., Widdowson, M., Pruden, A.  2013.  Effect of biostimulants on TNT degradation and bacterial community composition in contaminated aquifer sediment enrichments. Biodegradation. 24(2):179-90.

•      Crude oil