- A pathogenic species of Vibrio spp., a naturally occurring marine bacteria found in warm coastal waters, can cause severe and sometimes life-threatening infections.
- UF researchers are collaborating to transform the way scientists detect, forecast and respond to dangerous waterborne infections caused by pathogenic Vibrio bacteria.
- The team hopes to build an AI-enabled tool capable of projecting risky water conditions three to four weeks ahead of time.
In the summer of 2015, just a few hours after Florida native Justin Grubich noticed a light abrasion on his elbow, he knew something was terribly wrong.
“I woke up in the middle of the night, and my elbow had blown up, like a pimple coming off of it,” he remembered. “I thought, oh, I got just a little bit of an infection or something, and I tried to go back to sleep. But it started throbbing and throbbing. By about 6 a.m., my arm had just blown up.”
Hours later, Grubich was in the hospital, with medical personnel digging deep to evacuate the dying flesh. The suspicion: infection by Vibrio vulnificus, commonly referred to as flesh-eating bacteria.
And while Grubich lived to tell the tale, University of Florida researchers are working to prevent such close calls. Supported by a $3.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, the collaborative project between UF and the University of Maryland will develop an environmentally sensitive pathogen warning system for Vibrio species.
Led by UF, the initiative will create forecasting tools that can anticipate health risks linked to environmental conditions, providing advance warnings similar to the way weather forecasting helps communities prepare for storms and other hazards.