Emerging chemical contaminants TEAM

about us

 

The Emerging Chemical Contaminants team was established at King's College London in 2009 and from July 2020 will be relocated to Imperial College London within the Environmental Research Group at the School of Public Health

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Aim and purpose

Our aim is to further understanding of the sources, risks and impacts of existing, emerging and new chemical contaminants in the environment on humans and biota.

 

Our projects have mainly focussed on pharmaceuticals, personal care products, illicit drugs, pesticides, disinfectant by-products, public security related substances, industrial chemicals and extractables/leachables. Our work spans across all environmental spheres (soil, water, air and biological materials) and is largely underpinned with expertise in (bio)analytical chemistry and toxicology. We also specialise in the development of new approaches to the detection of chemical signatures relating to criminal activity and forensic science. In parallel with laboratory science, we embrace computational approaches using AI-enhanced analysis and predictive toxicology using large datasets derived from complex samples.

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Key strengths

Our particular strength lies in trace environmental analysis and have core expertise in separation science (e.g. LC, IC, GC, IMS and CE), advanced sampling/sample preparation (e.g. including on/offline SPE, passive sampling, pressurised liquid extraction), high and low resolution (tandem) mass spectrometry and data mining/computational modelling (e.g., machine learning and multivariate analysis for large datasets). Our major research themes include:

• Wastewater-based epidemiology: Near real-time population-level health assessment through the wastewater analysis. We have been members of the Sewage analysis CORE Group since 2011 contributing to knowledge of the health of ~30 countries and 90 cities globally. For example, we have provided data for London annually to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs & Drug Addiction on illicit drug use in the EU;

• Emerging contaminants/pollutants in the environment: Identifying the breadth, sources and fate of and as well as phenotypic and molecular level toxicological effects on biota. This includes performing exposure-based and machine-learning enhanced metabolomics and lipidomics to understand molecular-level effects, and mainly in terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates;

• Early threat warning: including early detection of explosives and new chemical/biological contaminants and hazards in the environment via the analysis of air and water.

All projects incorporate an interdisciplinary component drawing together molecular biology, toxicology, ecology, materials science, pharmaceutical science and computer science to maximise the impact and visibility of what we do across several fields. We have a strong relationship with the environmental, pharmaceutical and defence industries with most/all projects having partners who actively engage, fund and benefit from our research activity.

 

 

Recent Successes

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• Explosives and Drugs Detection in the Environment:

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Contributed yearly illicit drug profiling data from sewage analysis for London to the European Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction for comparison across >50 EU cities.

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First to characterise and quantify explosives in raw wastewater as a new way to determine explosives manufacturing activity in a city

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• Wildlife Crime

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First to detect and implement a strategy for recovery of fingermarks on elephant ivory. View a video on King's Spotlight and; media coverage.)

 

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