Antimicrobial resistance is the ability of micro-organisms (e.g. bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses) to change over time, hence reducing the effectiveness of treatments such as antibiotics. The World Health Organisation declared it as one of the greatest human health challenges of the 21st century. Current surveillance of antimicrobial resistance is limited to the clinical setting and does not provide coverage of antimicrobial resistance in the general population. It was recently demonstrated that metagenomic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 gene fragments in a community’s wastewater is pivotal in how Australia and other countries respond to COVID19 outbreaks. It is a contemporary exemplar of the intersection between wastewater testing and health surveillance. This project aims to use wastewater analysis to provide a surveillance strategy for monitoring antimicrobial resistance in the general population and to develop a National Wastewater Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Use Surveillance Method.
Outcomes
A direct injection LC-MS/MS method for the ultra-trace determination of ~100 antimicrobial compounds in wastewater influent and effluent has been developed on a state-of-the-art Sciex 7500 system and has been applied to samples collected across the country.
Lecture Presentations
O,Brien, J. The Wastewater Analysis for Understanding Populations and New Tools for the Detection of Chemicals of Emerging Concern, Imperial College London, 31 October 2022.
O'Brien, J. The Role of Wastewater Analysis for Understanding Populations and New Tools for the Detection of Chemicals of Emering Concern, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 27 October, 2023.
O'Brien, J. The Role of Wastewater Analysis for Understanding Populations and New Tools for the Detection of Chemicals of Emerging Concern, Federal Institure for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), 18 October 2023.
Conference Abstracts
O’Brien, J., Samanipour, S., Rousis, N., Tscharke, B., Bade, R., Van Herwerden, D., Dewapriya, P., Mueller, J. & Thomas, K. Combining non-target screening, wastewater-based epidemiology and Census as a technique to identify population and demographic markers, International Conference on Non-Target Screening, Germany, 16-19 October 2023.
Research Output
Shao, X.T., Ma, X.D., Li, J.L., O’Brien, J.W., Thomas, K. and Wang, D.G., 2025. Evaluating dextrorphan as a wastewater biomarker for cough suppressant use: A longitudinal study in China. Water Research, p.124119.
Yang, C., Zheng, Q., Wang, Z., Ahmed, F., Tscharke, B., Yang, S., O’Brien, J.W., Verhagen, R., Mueller, J.F., Tong, L. and Thai, P.K., 2025. Occurrence and Emission Evaluation of Oxypurinol and Metformin from Effluent in WWTPs across Australia. Environmental Science & Technology.
Zhai, N., Li, J., Klümper, U., Lakhey, P., Thomas, K.V. and O’Brien, J.W., 2025. Evaluation of a Low-Cost Active Air Sampler for the Surveillance of Airborne Transmission of Antibiotic Resistance Genes Using a Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant as a Case Study. ACS ES&T Engineering.
Turkina, V., Gringhuis, J.T., Boot, S., Petrignani, A., Corthals, G., Praetorius, A., O’Brien, J.W. and Samanipour, S., 2025. Prioritization of Unknown LC-HRMS Features Based on Predicted Toxicity Categories. Environmental Science & Technology, 59(16), pp.8004-8015.
Li, J., O’Brien, J.W., Tscharke, B.J., Verhagen, R., He, C., Shimko, K.M., Shao, X., Zhai, N., Hulleman, T., Mueller, J.F. and Thomas, K.V., 2025. Occurrence, Removal, and Risk Assessment of Antimicrobials and Their Transformation Products in Effluent from Australian Wastewater Treatment Plants. Environmental Science & Technology, 59(13), pp.6825-6838.
Zhao, Z., Yuan, J., Zheng, Q., Tscharke, B.J., Boogaerts, T., Wang, Z., Chen, S., O'Brien, J.W., van Nuijs, A.L., Covaci, A. and Mueller, J., 2025. Utilizing national wastewater and sales data to derive and validate the correction factors of five common antidepressants for wastewater-based epidemiology. Water Research, 276, p.123263.
Keane, C.A., Li, J., Li, J., Mueller, J.F., O'Brien, J.W. and Verhagen, R., 2025. High levels of antibiotics released by a pharmaceutical manufacturer negatively impacted wastewater treatment plant performance. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 11(4), pp.903-913.
Li, J., O’Brien, J.W., Tscharke, B.J., He, C., Shimko, K.M., Shao, X., Zhai, N., Mueller, J.F. and Thomas, K.V., 2024. National survey of the occurrence of antimicrobial agents in Australian wastewater and their socioeconomic correlates. Nature Water, 2(12), pp.1166-1177.
Verhagen, R., Gerber, C., Thai, P.K., Connor, J., Loveday, B., Bade, R., O'Brien, J., Jaunay, E.L., Simpson, B.S., Chan, G. and Hall, W., 2024. Wastewater‐based evaluation of the efficacy of oxycodone regulations in Australia. Addiction, 119(12), pp.2153-2161.
Ciccarelli, D., Samanipour, S., Rapp-Wright, H., Bieber, S., Letzel, T., O’Brien, J.W., Marczylo, T., Gant, T.W., Vineis, P. and Barron, L.P., 2025. Bridging knowledge gaps in human chemical exposure via drinking water with non-target screening. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 55(3), pp.190-214.
Nadarajan, D., O'Brien, J., Cresswell, S., Kele, B., Mueller, J. and Bade, R., 2024. Application of design of experiment for quantification of 71 new psychoactive substances in influent wastewater. Analytica Chimica Acta, 1321, p.343036.
Chen, S., Bade, R., Tscharke, B., Hall, W., Thai, P., He, C., Ahmed, F., Zheng, Q., Choi, P.M., O’Brien, J.W. and Mueller, J.F., 2024. Assessing daily patterns in stimulant use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Melbourne, Australia using wastewater analysis. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 476, p.135130.
Wang, Z., Zheng, Q., Tscharke, B.J., Li, J., O'Brien, J.W., Patterson, B., Zhao, Z., Thomas, K.V., Mueller, J.F. and Thai, P.K., 2024. High throughput and sensitive quantitation of tobacco-specific alkaloids and nitrosamines in wastewater. Talanta, 277, p.126401.
Samanipour, S., Barron, L.P., van Herwerden, D., Praetorius, A., Thomas, K.V. and O’Brien, J.W., 2024. Exploring the Chemical space of the exposome: how far have we gone?. JACS Au, 4(7), pp.2412-2425.
van Herwerden, D., Nikolopoulos, A., Barron, L.P., O'Brien, J.W., Pirok, B.W., Thomas, K.V. and Samanipour, S., 2024. Exploring the chemical subspace of RPLC: A data driven approach. Analytica Chimica Acta, 1317, p.342869.
Clarke, L.M., O’Brien, J.W., Murray, A.K., Gaze, W.H. and Thomas, K.V., 2024. A review of wastewater-based epidemiology for antimicrobial resistance surveillance. Journal of Environmental Exposure Assessment, 3(1).
Li, J., Choi, P.M., Gao, J., Ren, J., O'Brien, J.W., Thomas, K.V., Mueller, J.F., Thai, P.K. and Jiang, G., 2024. In-sewer stability of 31 human health biomarkers and suitability for wastewater-based epidemiology. Water Research, 249, p.120978.
Research Impact
This project has been discussed with the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment who are particularly interested in the analytical method developed to date, and would like to apply this method to effluent and biosolids. This method will also be applied for monitoring purposes for CRC-SAAFE, and there is discussion of a collaboration with Animal Industries Antimicrobial Stewarship Strategy. This project has also resulted in a relationship with the Interm Australian Centre for Disease Control Antimicrobial Resistance Policy section.
