Publications by Brian Pecson | EPFL Graph Search

The utility of flow cytometry for potable reuse

Tamar Kohn, Krista Rule Wigginton, Brian Pecson

Protecting public health from pathogens is critical when treating wastewater to drinking water standards (i.e., planned water reuse). Viruses are a principal concern, yet real-time monitoring strategies do not currently measure virus removal through reuse ...

2019

Subtle differences in virus composition affect disinfection kinetics and mechanisms

Tamar Kohn, Brian Pecson, Krista Rule Wigginton, Anne Thérèse Sigstam, Michele Cascella

Viral disinfection kinetics have been studied in depth, but the molecular-level inactivation mechanisms are not understood. Consequently, it is difficult to predict the disinfection behavior of non-culturable viruses, even when related, culturable viruses ...

American Society for Microbiology2013

Photoinactivation of virus on iron-oxide coated sand: enhancing inactivation in sunlit waters

Tamar Kohn, Brian Pecson, Loïc Decrey

Adsorption onto iron oxides can enhance the removal of waterborne viruses in constructed wetlands and soils. If reversible adsorption is not coupled with inactivation, however, infective viruses may be released when changes in solution conditions cause des ...

Elsevier2012

Virus inactivation mechanisms: impact of disinfectants on virus function and structural integrity

Tamar Kohn, Krista Rule Wigginton, Brian Pecson, Anne Thérèse Sigstam, Franziska Sara Bosshard

Oxidative processes are often harnessed as tools for pathogen disinfection. Although the pathways responsible for bacterial inactivation with various biocides are fairly well understood, virus inactivation mechanisms are often contradictory or equivocal. I ...

Amer Chemical Soc2012

A framework for using quantitative PCR as a non-culture based method to estimate virus infectivity

Tamar Kohn, Brian Pecson, Martin Ackermann

Measuring the efficiency of virus disinfection with quantitative PCR (qPCR) has been criticized as inadequate due to the production of false-positive signals. Such a claim, however, presupposes an understanding of the theoretical qPCR response. Many studie ...

2011

Fate of the pathogen indicators phage phiX174 and Ascaris suum eggs during the production of struvite fertilizer from source-separated urine

Tamar Kohn, Brian Pecson, Loïc Decrey, Kai Udert

Human urine has the potential to be a sustainable, locally and continuously available source of nutrients for agriculture. Phosphate can be efficiently recovered from human urine in the form of the mineral struvite (MgNH4PO4•6H2O). However, struvite format ...

Elsevier2011

Quantitative PCR for determining the infectivity of bacteriophage MS2 upon inactivation by heat, UVB and singlet oxygen: advantages and limitations of an enzymatic treatment to reduce false-positive results

Tamar Kohn, Brian Pecson

Health risks posed by waterborne viruses are difficult to assess because it is tedious or impossible to determine the infectivity of many viruses. Recent studies hypothesized that quantitative PCR (qPCR) could selectively quantify infective viruses if prec ...

American Society for Microbiology2009