Sara Castiglioni

Sara Castiglioni, graduated in Biological Sciences, subsequently obtained a PhD in environmental chemistry and risk assessment. The main research areas are: study of the presence and environmental behaviour of various classes of emerging contaminants and wastewater epidemiology. The study of the presence and environmental fate of numerous emerging contaminants, particularly pharmaceuticals, has been carried out in various environmental matrices, from wastewater, surface water, groundwater and drinking water to sewage sludge, soils and sediments, and has also included biological matrices such as algae, plants and macroinvertebrates. This is aimed at assessing the effects on the environment and human health. Wastewater epidemiology was born in 2005 when our research group developed a new methodology based on the analysis of urban wastewater using sophisticated analytical techniques to estimate the consumption of drugs of abuse in the population that produced the aforementioned wastewater. The Laboratory directed by Sara Castiglioni has extended this approach to other lifestyles, such as the use of alcohol and nicotine, and to the estimation of exposure to contaminants in food such as pesticides and mycotoxins. We have also been working for some years on monitoring the presence of viruses in urban wastewater and antibiotic resistance genes. Sara Castiglioni is the author of more than 150 scientific articles published in international peer-reviewed journals.