Summary
Davide Ciccarelli is a PhD student funded by the NIHR HPRU in Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazard to research Highly Toxic Agents (HTAs) in drinking water.
He is an analytical chemist with over a decade of experience of small molecules quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Routine analysis targets well-known dangerous substances that are detectable at very low concentration. The number of HTAs potentially present in drinking water vastly exceeds the selection that is made for routine analysis. Non-targeted screening is a challenging task that can potentially allow for detection of all HTAs in water, but many years of research will be needed to achieve this objective. I am developing analytical methods to establish the best possible sample preparation and instrumental set-up; I will also develop a data-processing workflow capable of dealing with the vast amount of information contained in HRMS data. The project will include a survey of UK drinking sources, to assess exposure to new and existing HTAs, and evaluate the risk for population and environment.