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• Invited speakers are world experts and leaders in the field of coliphages research Dr. Mark D. Sobsey, Dr. Charles P. Gerba, and Dr. Juan Jofre.

• The webinar “Past, Present, and Future of Coliphages” will be held on Thursday, April 21 at 16:00 CET// 11:00 (EST) // 8:00 (GMT-7) and will be open and accessible to all audiences.

Bluephage will host a roundtable discussion with microbiologists Dr. Mark D. Sobsey, PhD, professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Dr. Charles P. Gerba, PhD, professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Arizona, and Dr. Juan Jofre, PhD, Emeritous Full Professor in the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, Microbiology section, at the University of Barcelona, to shed light on the past 60 years of research on coliphages, non-pathogenic viruses that infect coliform bacteria such as E. coli.

From the early years when coliphages began to emerge as potential indicators of microbial water quality, to the present time when some international regulations already require them to certify water safety, the session will end with an overview of the future of the environmental testing market, conditioned by climate change.

The round table, organized in a virtual format, aims to reflect on a current debate about the greater effectiveness of viruses over bacteria in determining water safety for human and agricultural use.

Invited experts and leaders in coliphage research will present and discuss why these non-pathogenic viruses are emerging as potential viral indicators of water and what barriers they have encountered over the past sixty years to demonstrate their viability.

They will also reflect on how climate change affects the water cycle and urge the need to commercialize rapid and effective environmental pathogen detection tests.

All of this will be discussed during the one-hour-long online session, with time for questions and answers, which will be open and accessible to all audiences.

Invited speakers:

Dr. Mark D. Sobsey, PhD, professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina.

Recently retired from his full-time position as Kenan Distinguished Professor, Dr. Mark Sobsey studies human exposure to and health effects from pathogens (disease-causing) microbes in water, food and other environmental media to which people can become exposed in the developed and developing word, and the development and implementation of improved pathogen and microbial indicator detection methods.

Dr. Charles P. Gerba, PhD, professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Arizona

Charles P. Gerba is a professor of virology in the Dept of Environmental Science. He has authored over 500 journal articles, books and has been featured on numerous television programs and magazines. Dr. Gerba has an international reputation for his methodologies for pathogen detection in water and food, pathogen occurrence in households, and risk assessment.

Dr. Juan Jofre, PhD, PhD, Emeritous Full Professor in the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, Microbiology section, at the University of Barcelona.

Professor Juan Jofre Joan Jofre is an expert on the study of the presence and persistence of pathogenic microorganisms of faecal-oral route transmissions and their indicators in water, and member of the Research Group Microbiologia d’Aigües Relacionada amb la Salut (Health-related Water Microbiology, MARS) of the University of Barcelona, which belongs to the International Water Association (IWA)– and the Work Group of the International Organization for Standarization (ISO), working on the standardization of microbiological methods applied to water microbiological analysis.