Health-Related Water Microbiology

01/09/2026

The forthcoming IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition in Glasgow will bring together hundreds of speakers across 100+ technical sessions, workshops, forums and business forums. 🌍

Among them is Professor Joan B. Rose, Nowlin Chair in Water Research and Director of the Water Alliance at Michigan State University.

Joan will contribute to two important sessions:

🔹 Developing a Global Water Diplomacy Curriculum
🔹 Harnessing AI to Understand Pathogenic Viruses in Water Systems

“The IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition has always been a place for our global water professionals to bring science and practice together. Advancing modern water quality tools, risk assessment and treatment technologies, we all need this event more than ever.”

Join us in Glasgow from 4–8 October 2026 and register for to access insights from a world-leading line-up of researchers, practitioners and water-sector leaders.

🔗 Register now: https://ow.ly/LxVw50ZCl4F

28/08/2026

The deadline for WaterMicro2027 abstract submission is approaching!!! https://www.watermicro2027.com/ponencias.php

13/08/2026

Highlights
• Hormone-based WBE expands wastewater surveillance beyond external exposure tracking toward interpretation of population-level physiological responses.

• Hormonal biomarkers in wastewater are highly context-dependent and require integration with clinical, environmental, behavioral, and co-occurring wastewater indicators for reliable interpretation.

• A systems-level and ethically governed framework is essential for advancing hormone-based WBE into a scientifically robust, context-aware, and actionable public health surveillance tool.

https://wastewaterbasedepidemiologicalsurveillance.net/paper-collection/making-waves-toward-systems-level-interpretation-of-hormonal-and-endogenous-biomarkers-in-wastewater-based-epidemiology/

13/08/2026

Highlights
• Year-long wastewater sequencing revealed influenza A and B circulation dynamics in Germany.

• Airport wastewater showed persistent off-season influenza signals unlike municipal systems.

• Multi-segment sequencing improves robustness of influenza detection in wastewater.

• Influenza A, B and avian influenza internal segments were detectable across diverse sewersheds.

https://wastewaterbasedepidemiologicalsurveillance.net/paper-collection/wastewater-genomic-surveillance-of-influenza-a-and-b-reveals-seasonal-and-off-season-circulation-differences-between-municipal-sites-and-an-international-airport-germany-2024/

13/08/2026

Highlights
● An intergenus conjugation transfer model in real aquaculture system is established.

● OPEs facilitate the ARGs transmission by intergenus plasmid-mediated conjugation.

● OPEs alter intracellular ROS, activate SOS, and enhance cell membrane permeability.

● Intracellular energy and related gene expression promote conjugation transfer.

● TBEP improves the genetic stability and expression persistence in transconjugants.

https://hrwm-watermicro.com/2026/08/13/the-overlooked-risk-of-horizontal-transfer-of-plasmid-borne-antibiotic-resistance-genes-induced-by-organophosphate-esters-in-aquaculture-environments/

13/08/2026

Highlights
• Distinct AMR spatial patterns in water and sediment following RW input.

• A robust six-indicator AMR risk assessment framework is proposed.

• Cross-media ARB exchange obviously enhanced by a factor of 14.3 after RW input.

• Triclosan ranked as the important factor of sediment ARG diversity.

• HGT and ARB cross-media exchange primarily contributed to AMR dissemination.

Water Research, Volume 304, 1 October 2026, 126377. Bang-Ze Li, Shu-Hao Du, Han-Lin Cui, Xin-Xin Gao, Jia-Hao Wu, Bei-Ying Li, Shu-Hong Gao, Ai-Jie Wang, Bin Liang https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135426010560

13/08/2026

Highlights
• Chlorination drives metabolic reprogramming in drinking water microbiomes.

• Enhanced central carbon metabolism boosts NAD(P)H for redox buffering.

• Core dehydrogenases (e.g., mdh, narG) dictate oxidative stress survival.

• Metabolic rewiring confers dual tolerance to chlorine and antibiotics.

• Carbon restriction (AOC control) may mitigate this resistance emergence.

Water Research, Volume 304, 1 October 2026, 126381. Mengyuan Wang, Zhiguang Niu, Xin Zuo, Sihan Ji, Ying Zhang https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135426010602

13/08/2026

Highlights
• Developed an integrated multi-model framework to predict antibiotics and ARGs under data-scarce conditions.

• The model effectively predicted clarithromycin and ARG dynamics in coastal urban waters using readily available and limited data.

• SHAP analysis elucidated not only the relative importance of environmental drivers, but also their response times and interaction effects.

Water Research, Volume 304, 1 October 2026, 126336. Sheng Huang, Luhua You, Karina Yew-Hoong Gin https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135426010158

13/08/2026

Highlights
• Log reduction data in WHO Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality need an update.

• Limited field-based data on the inactivation of microbes using disinfectants exists.

• Free chlorine, chlorine dioxide, ozone, and UV each have unique disinfection efficacy.

• Inactivation data tailing can lead to overprediction of required UV fluences.

• Standardized reporting of microbial inactivation data is needed.

Water Research, Volume 304, 1 October 2026, 126294. Emma Wells, Teal Bullick, Gouthami Rao, Patrick Smeets, Alex Hockin, Joe Brown, Jennifer DeFrance, Karl Linden https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135426009735

13/08/2026

Highlights
• Legionella growth and thermal/chemical inactivation studies were reviewed.

• Microbial kinetic models were robustly fitted to compiled and harmonized datasets.

• Key heterogeneity sources identified include matrix effects and host interactions.

• Temperature-dependent growth parameters differ for monoculture vs host-associations.

• Temperature × time and Concentration × time capture inactivation pattern differences.

Water Research, Volume 304, 1 October 2026, 126280. Catalina Ortiz, Fatemeh Hatam, Hunter Quon, Kerry A. Hamilton, Sébastien P. Faucher, Michèle Prévost https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135426009590