Developing a locally viable water filtration method to provide safe drinking and bathing water from Lake Victoria in a Schistosoma mansoni endemic area

MVLS/EPSRC PhD fully funded positions are available within the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow. Our aim is to deliver high quality, collaborative research and training for our PhD students within the Biosciences. The West of Scotland is a key region in the UK for academic excellence, industrial support and investment.

Areas of research include (but are not restricted to) mathematical biology, bioenergy, synthetic biology, nanobiology and research into healthcare devices. A list of available projects, abstracts and supervisors can be found HERE. We strongly recommend that students examine the list of projects available, and contact potential supervisors to discuss the projects before applying.

Visit programme website for more information: https://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvls/graduateschool/mvlsepsrcstudentships/

Supervisors:

Dr Poppy Lamberton

Prof Cindy Smith

PhD Project Summary:

Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease infecting over 240 million people, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Transmission is intrinsically linked to poverty, driven by poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions. Individuals acquire infections when they contact fresh water containing cercariae, the infective larval stage of the parasite. Water contact occurs through behaviours such as water collection and bathing. Water contamination, and hence disease transmission through water contact, is high in areas with inadequate sanitation. This interdisciplinary PhD will address questions surrounding the design, effectiveness, and uptake of a low-cost water filtration system to extract and treat lake water by passage through slow sand biofilters to make it safe for drinking, bathing and other domestic uses. The project will involve working in the laboratory to design, develop and test the filtration system in the UK and with households in endemic communities in Uganda to assess filtration usage and reinfection levels in families with and without access to treated water. You will gain skills in slow sand and biofiltration design and development, microbiology, field epidemiology, parasitology and an understanding of local factors influencing design, manufacturing and uptake of local engineering water-based interventions.