Imperial College London
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Professor Matthew Fisher

Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health

Professor of Fungal Disease Epidemiology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

matthew.fisher Website

 
 
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Location

 

1113Sir Michael Uren HubWhite City Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@unpublished{Shelton:2020:10.1101/2020.06.11.146241,
author = {Shelton, JMG and Fisher, MC and Singer, AC},
doi = {10.1101/2020.06.11.146241},
title = {Campaign-Based Citizen Science for Environmental Mycology: the “Science Solstice” and “Summer Soil-stice” Projects to Assess Drug Resistance in Air and Soilborne <i>Aspergillus fumigatus</i>},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.11.146241},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - UNPB
AB  - <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Citizen science projects are often undertaken for ecological and environmental research purposes but also have great potential for use in microbiology research to track the emergence and spread of pathogens in the environment. ‘Science Solstice’ and ‘Summer Soil-stice’ are mycology citizen science projects aimed at assessing drug resistance in <jats:italic>Aspergillus fumigatus</jats:italic> fungal spores found in air and soil, respectively, in the United Kingdom (UK). <jats:italic>A. fumigatus</jats:italic> plays an important role in the environment as a decomposer of plant material, but is also an opportunistic human lung pathogen. Infection with drug-resistant spores can lead to a worse clinical outcome for the patient.</jats:p><jats:p>On the first four solstice and equinox days between June 2018 and June 2019, volunteers were asked to collect air samples from their homes and workplaces and return them to our lab in Freepost envelopes. An additional round of samples was requested from volunteer’s gardens and/or compost on the June 2019 solstice. In total, 787 volunteers returned 2,132 air samples and 509 soil samples, which grew a total of 7,991 <jats:italic>A. fumigatus</jats:italic> colonies. The estimated total cost of the study was £2,650; the equivalent of 33 pence per <jats:italic>A. fumigatus</jats:italic> colony grown.</jats:p><jats:p>Incorporating citizen science into the environmental surveillance of drug-resistant <jats:italic>A. fumigatus</jats:italic> allowed for the simultaneous collection of hundreds of environmental samples across the entire UK on the same day. The insights generated from this study would not be practical in the absence of public participation and offers opportunities to ask scientific questions that were previously unaskable.</jats:p>
AU  - Shelton,JMG
AU  - Fisher,MC
AU  - Singer,AC
DO  - 10.1101/2020.06.11.146241
PY  - 2020///
TI  - Campaign-Based Citizen Science for Environmental Mycology: the “Science Solstice” and “Summer Soil-stice” Projects to Assess Drug Resistance in Air and Soilborne <i>Aspergillus fumigatus</i>
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.11.146241
ER  -
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