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As a scientist, I appreciate the beauty of the natural world — not just what we can see, but also its prism of proportions, equations and spectrums.
Part of the beauty is that so much is left to be discovered. Nature challenges us to follow her clues, find her secrets, solve the puzzle. Nature also challenges us to pay attention to the health of our planet and its delicate ecosystems. Beyond such headline issues as climate change and the destruction of the rainforests, immense changes are happening all around us, and few are positive. Countless plants, animals and aquatic creatures have gone extinct, or soon will. Many of these species lived in places so remote, or in numbers so limited, that they died off before any human could ever view them, or any scientist could classify them. A more immediate concern for many, the purity of our air and water is at great risk. Airborne pollutants and pathogens are multiplying the health risks for people and populations across the globe. Land, water and air are dumping grounds for industrial and consumer waste on a grand scale. As an example of this, vast areas of the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay have become veritable “dead zones,” where native species literally cannot breathe. Continents of plastic waste extend for thousands of miles across the ocean, washing ashore on beaches and transforming aquatic life cycles that have existed for eons. Addressing these challenges is a Herculean undertaking even for governments and well-funded institutions, so it’s fair to ask: What can one person do? My scientific training teaches me that the real question is: Can we afford to do nothing at all? I am reminded of the famous line in Voltaire’s Candide: Il faut cultiver notre jardin. We must cultivate our own garden. We must try to improve what we can in our own backyards, in our own towns, provinces and countries. If we have the talent and good fortune to do more, we absolutely should. But first we must start at home, building momentum with small efforts that ultimately pay large dividends. That is why I am dedicated to practical research that has real-world applications, making 20 important discoveries in the laboratory over the course of my career. And that is also why I established Hamza Mbareche Consulting, a service that helps schools, hospitals, nursing homes, businesses and homeowners discover air quality issues and effectively address them. From my extensive study of airborne microorganisms, the microbiome and genomics, I know that the hazards are many, and the risks are great for individuals, especially young children. When it comes to air and water pollution, the economic cost is frequently highlighted. But there is a human cost, which can range from development of chronic medical issues to long-term hospitalization, and worse. Myriad studies confirm this. For example, in a 2020 study published in Current Opinion in Psychology, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research team noted: “Air pollution harms cognitive functioning across all life stages, from prenatal development, to childhood, to young adulthood, and even into old age.” These hazards are usually as invisible as the air itself. Invisible, but detectable by the wealth of new technologies science has devised — technologies that can and must be used to meet the challenge of protecting people, and preserving our planet. Increasing awareness among the public about the importance of indoor and atmospheric air quality — and the link with an array of health hazards and chronic medical conditions — is generating a strong demand for home and office air monitoring products.
Technology has rapidly evolved to fill the need for precise detection of airborne pathogens and particles. Homeowners and businesses alike want to know whether microbes and cancer-causing substances such as asbestos are suspended in living spaces, and at what concentration. A clear sign of the increased concern over air quality is the skyrocketing growth of the market for air quality monitors. According to analysis from ReportLinker.com, the global market for indoor air quality monitors was estimated at USD $3.7 billion in 2020. It’s now projected to reach a size of $6.4 billion by 2027. As home monitoring increases, so does the need for finding practical solutions to improve the air we breathe and mitigate risks. This is especially true in spaces for vulnerable people, like children and the elderly, and areas of food preparation. This point was highlighted in a study conducted in the spring by the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment and the Canadian Child Care Federation, in collaboration with University of Ottawa researchers. Nearly half of 2,000 professionals in child care programs across the country reported unhealthy conditions for children, according to the survey data. Over two-thirds of respondents expressed concern about risks to children’s health and wellbeing posed by air pollution (indoor 64 percent; outdoor 69 percent), toxic chemicals in products (69 percent), a lack of access to nature (68 percent), and climate change (68 percent). When consumers are ready to act, there are many options for air quality monitoring and purification systems, including reference-grade FRM/FEM monitors, mobile air quality sensors, and stationary low-cost sensors. Air quality monitoring using FRM and FEM equipment developed largely as a result of government mandates. A key reason both the U.S. and Canadian governments got involved in the maturation and application of these technologies is that they needed ways to accurately measure air quality in cases where atmospheric data are used to develop policy and measure compliance with regulatory standards. This type of monitoring equipment is extremely precise — and expensive. A single monitor may cost as much as $40,000 USD. On top of that, the equipment requires periodic maintenance from highly trained technicians. Because the monitors need specific types of environments and infrastructure, they are harder to deploy and often impractical when it comes to measuring air quality in small spaces. That’s where mobile air quality monitoring comes in. Mobile monitors are light enough to be mounted on cars, and much less costly. This sometimes comes at the expense of accuracy. Stationary low-cost sensors that are not considered mobile are equally attractive options, but also tend to fall short of the FRM/FEM gold standard. These options measure air quality in different ways, and often provide different data outputs. The choice of the most appropriate monitoring technology is an important one, as precise and regular monitoring can make the difference between a healthy environment and an atmosphere that is hazardous to adults and children. There is a discipline at the cusp of scientific knowledge, furthering the field and allowing for greater and more expedient understanding. Scripts are written in specific programming languages that are able to analyze biological data, specifically DNA and RNA sequences from viruses and microbes. This field is called bioinformatics and it has gained in popularity the last couple of decades, namely for its ability to solve significant scientific challenges in both the medical and environmental worlds.
At the intersection of microbiology and bioinformatics is a realm where the biological context, real-life application, and technical aspects of a study can be understood with greater depth. While bioinformatics is commonly described as being in its infancy, that is somewhat a misnomer. Computers actually surfaced as a significant tool in molecular biology as early as the 1960s. “A decade before DNA sequencing became feasible, computational biologists focused on the rapidly accumulating data from protein biochemistry,” according to an article published in the National Library of Medicine National Center for Biotechnology Information. Scientists working with early computers and without the benefits of computer networks or supercomputers, were able to establish vital technical and conceptual foundations for bioinformatics that are still used today. But what does this mean for the future of biology, medicine and scientific understanding? For starters, technological advancements and the heightened ability to analyze data significantly expedited the completion of the Human Genome Project, a 13-year project focused on identifying approximately 30,000 genes in human DNA. That accumulated information is now stored in databases, analyzed and used for a variety of purposes, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute. Findings from the project will have profound impacts on biomedical research and clinical medicine. After all, all diseases have a genetic component. Some may be inherited, as is the case with the nearly 3,000 to 4,000 hereditary diseases like Cystic Fibrosis and Huntington’s Disease. Or, the genes can respond to an environmental stress that causes changes in the genome like the case with diabetes, heart disease and cancer. An understanding of the human genome means scientists and medical practitioners can directly search for the genes associated with specific diseases and also generate greater understanding of the molecular basis of the diseases. This, in turn, paves the way for preventative tests and more effective treatment, including simplifying diagnosis of disease, accelerated detection of genetic predispositions to specific disease, gene therapy, gene replacement therapy and even custom drugs. Bioinformatics is the future and has infinite potential to help people who have diseases and even, more broadly, help the world face challenges associated with global warming. AuthorHamza Mbareche is a researcher, trainer and consultant who focuses on improving the environmental safety of workplaces and public spaces, using cutting edge technologies. Archives
August 2023
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